Mass Maddness
by Survivor243
Summary: Zach "Angel" Tyson is a mutant making a living an intergalactic community working as mercenary taking down slavers with a colorful collection of characters at his back, however he discovers that even the Council needs a man like him. Completely original content. Post ME-1, no Reapers mentioned. Rated M for safety. R&R Please.
1. Chapter 1

**I own nothing. BioWare has all copyrights to ME Universe.**

**Chapter One: Some Pirate Hunting**

Sneaking onto a ship flying through space at several hundred knots undetected from an nearby asteroid cluster was about as difficult as getting inside the ship, neutralizing the hostile crew, releasing the captives and getting them off the ship alive before reinforcements from other ships less than an hour away arrived. All without any real kind of backup, well aside from the infiltration and rescue team consisting of just four individuals perched on the particular asteroid waiting for the ship to move within range before they made the blind leap into space where they would hopefully move into the path of the oncoming ship. Now it was a balancing act if they jumped to early or too late, if they jumped too soon, they would become four bloody hood ornaments on the front of the pirate ship and if they jumped too late it would be a very long jetpack ride back to where they stashed their ship and they wouldn't have another chance to rescue the captives.

A Krogan, a Asari, a Quarian and a Human were perched on the edge of the asteroid in full combat armor and sealed up to avoid the lethal void of open space as they made last minute preparations before the jump, checking equipment and weapons that were vital for this op to succeed without a hitch.

Jorthan, the krogan, was dressed in a suit comprised of a black and green color scheme as the orange visor hid his face as he made sure his Claymore 300 Mk VI shotguns were exactly where he needed them before double checking the blasting charges located in various pouches on his armor, it was his job to blast his way inside the ship once they reached the ship, then he would be heading into the nearest group of pirates with two shotguns blazing, a thought that brought a smile to his face as he finished his inspection.

Bella, the asari of the group, was practicing her biotics on nearby chunks of rock after she completed her gear check of the medical supplies and stimulants that she would have to administer to the captives once they fought all the way to the cells they were being held, her choice of weapons leaned towards a Lancer Mk III submachine gun, a Striker Mk VII pistol and a Hurricane Mk IV shotgun.

Kelvin, the quarian, hefted the Crossfire Mk II grenade launcher back over his shoulder as the weapon compacted itself and stuck to the magnetic strip running down the length of his back next to the smaller Scorcher Mk VII flamethrower unit before he checked his omni-tool to make sure he had the proper hacking algorithms downloaded to hopefully get inside the ship without blasting a hole in the side and letting everyone onboard know there was a boarding crew on the hull.

Zach, the human, and also the smallest member of the team was busy adjusting his Tsunami Mk VIII assault rifle to ride next to his Armax Mk VI shotgun on his back as he made sure the additional blasting charges he had were secured and that the copy of the hacking code was on his omni-tool before he made sure the com unit worked.

"Give me an audio check guys." Zach asked over the inter-unit com as he watched his HUD to verify that everything was in working order.

"Loud and clear." The display next to Kelvin's name lit up as the quarian nodded his head.

"I read you perfectly." Bella answered as she hunkered down to wait.

A loud belch was heard over the com as Zach turned to face the krogan, who was slamming his massive fist into his chest plate, "Sorry about that, heard you all."

"Yeah, just don't do that when we get inside." Kelvin said as he shook his head at the Krogan.

"No kidding, last thing we want is for those pirates to hear us before we get onboard." Bella said as she pulled another rock towards her and then pushed it away.

Jorthan growled, "If the ship ever gets here, how much longer do we have to wait on this damn rock anyway?"

A blinking light in the top of Zach's HUD got his attention as the view screen popped up with a live feed of a massive ship move past the first waypoint, "Cut the chatter people, we got the guest of honor coming down the carpet."

All four of them tensed up once they got notification that the ship was navigating its way through the asteroid cluster to avoid detection from long range radar monitoring buoys that the Alliance had set up to locate ships moving through this particular area, once an unauthorized ship tripped the sensors, then a couple frigates would show up and stop the ship. The pirates had found out early on that simply navigating the asteroid field was a good way to slip past the sensors without being detected, because radar couldn't penetrate very far into the asteroid field and the Alliance wasn't keen on patrolling the asteroid clusters in order to root out the pirates, so rather they waited on radar buoys to find them.

The pirate ship was a typical Vorcha cargo mover modified for speed and carried armament typically associated with frigates or blockade runners, but it had a large shipment of captives, recently taken from a colony on the Rehius System, mostly Turain, Asari and Human, but there were also Quarian and Salarian among them as well, but then again attacking a Vorcha pirate ship was akin to punching a Thresher Maw in the face with only a knife to attack with, they were ruthless and savage, but they knew damaged goods would bring a lower price, so for the most part they left the captives alone until they reached a port to trade off the captives for credits.

Seven Alliance ships had been destroyed in the delaying action, the rest of the pirate fleet has effectively decoyed the Alliance from noticing that all of the captives were loaded onto a single ship and slipped away before reinforcements from Alliance Command showed up in the system and drove the rest of the pirates off with minimal losses, but the damage has been done. Once the pirates went back the meeting point, they found half the Ninth Alliance Fleet waiting for them, but none of the ships were packed with captives, turned out that the leader behind the group of Vorcha was a powerful Asari, name was unknown other than Queen had betrayed her Vorcha allies and left them for the fall, so she was high up on the Council most wanted list, dead or alive.

The four of them were planning on dealing with a small number of Vorcha due to the fact that the ship could only hold a few thousand captives, more than likely in the cargo holds and isolation decks were closed off from the rest of the ship, making the ship largely populated with captives and maybe a hundred pirates.

The plan was simple, catch a ride on the ship while it was underway, no thruster packs or com signal from any of them once they landed on the ship, found a way inside and then take out the crew holding several thousand innocent people hostage. The plan was about as simple as it came, board the pirate ship, take control of the ship and steer it into the radar so the Alliance would come running once they saw a Vorcha ship, no doubt at least a patrol of three frigates would show up within fifteen minutes.

"Here she comes," Zach whispered over the com once the second sensor tripped, giving him speed and course of the ship through the narrow path, "wait for it."

The clicking of his gravity boots disengaging followed by the weightless feeling associated with it told him that he was no longer anchored to the asteroid he was hiding on, save for the anchoring pin driven into the surface earlier as he squatted down, ready to launch himself off the rock as the rest of his team did the same.

"Wait for it," Zach whispered as he activated his omni-tool for his jetpack controls, "we only have a ten second burn once we jump, so wait for my signal."

The HUD was catching faint glimpses of something moving toward them as Zach braced himself, able to see the ship move into sight, a charcoal black shape broken by random running lights and portholes as the glow from the main drive thrusters cast the ship in an eerie backlight as the third sensor tripped.

"Jump!" Someone shouted over the com, Kelvin no doubt as all four of them launched themselves off the asteroid in perfect unison, shortly thereafter, four jetpacks ignited with high intensity burns as the ship loomed closer.

Zach knew that a simple miscalculation would end up with him either landing perfectly or winding up as a smear on the hull of the ship as he cut the jetpack after the timer on his omni-tool reached zero, bracing himself as he looked around carefully. Bella and Kelvin were slightly ahead of him, so that meant Jorthan was behind him somewhere, no doubt his jetpack having to move a heavier mass, but they were right on target as the hull of the ship loomed into his entire field of vision.

His landing was a sudden stop as he dropped to his knee in order to lessen the abrupt impact, rather than break his legs when he hit, so he landed rather gracefully as he looked around for the others.

Jorthan landed less gracefully, dropping onto his chest with enough force for Zach to wince at the amount of force Jorthan had collided with the hull, but he was up and moving after a few seconds, his regenerative systems fast enough to keep him up and moving.

Zach waved for Jorthan to follow him as he took his rifle off his back, waiting the second and a half for the weapon to unfold to the proper size, he was proud of this rifle and would never let it go for as long as he lived, because it had saved his life countless times as he spotted Kelvin waving at him from the dorsal projection sticking up out of the hull as he headed for it.

Bella was already waiting for them at what looked like a docking point, but none of them were going to trust the Vorcha to leave something as obvious as a docking airlock left unguarded, probably a few sensors that would trip once someone unauthorized forced them open, which would result in a high alert and having every single pirate armed and ready to repel boarders and Vorcha were bloodthirsty when it came to close quarters combat. Even though an Asari Queen was running things and a lot of cutthroat Vorcha running around made things interesting, but when it came to finding backdoors and other ways into various parts of any ship, it paid to bring a Quarian along.

Having intimate knowledge of typical ship systems, everything from ancient Quarian cruisers down to Krogan planet hoppers, Kelvin knew of several ways onto a ship that went past the entire network of monitoring sensors from the outside without tripping any kind of sensor, but sadly, it wasn't ideal.

The waste disposal chute on a ship this size was large enough for someone to climb through, which Kelvin did after hacking the door open, stepping aside to allow the deluge of waste material and frozen liquids to pass through the opened chute. The one thing the Quarian forgot to do was warn everyone else that he was opening the waste chute on a Vorcha ship filled with a few thousand captives, Bella and Zach were already standing off to the side searching for any kind of security turrets or response to impacting with the hull, but Jorthan had been standing ten meters from the chute with his back turned.

Zach winced again for the second time in five minutes as the chute emptied a load of crap directly onto the unaware Krogan, a good thing his gravity boots were engaged or else he would have been swept off the ship with the rest of the garbage as Kelvin waited another three seconds before jumping through the chute opening to get where he needed to go as Bella turned to face Jorthan.

A mound of walking garbage stalked closer to the chute before an arm reached out and punched the doors hard enough to leave a shallow dent as Jorthan began shaking himself off, his shields had failed under the countless impacts from the harder objects, but his suit hadn't been punctured as Bella wisely moved out of reach.

"I am going to kill that damn Quarian when we are finished with this job," a venomous growl filled Zach's speakers as Jorthan began shaking himself off, "I will cut holes in his suit while he sleeps so he can die slowly from oxygen poisoning."

"Easy there Jorthan, we need Kelvin alive and unharmed for the time being." Zach answered as Bella was shaking, no doubt having turned off her transmit signal as she was busy laughing hysterically, even Zach couldn't help the grin filling his face as the waste chute opened again.

"Come on in, I've managed to hack control to the entire ship from -ack!" Zach watched as the waste covered Krogan made a beeline straight to the Quarian floating in the middle of the waste tank and wrapped his hands around Kelvin's throat as Bella shook her head and went over to free the helpless Quarian from a seething Krogan intent on wringing his neck.

Zach followed at a much more leisurely pace as he used his omni-tool to control the waste chute door to close and vacuum seal to bring the collection tank within the same atmosphere pressure as the rest of the ship as he activated his omni-tool torch and began cutting into the side of the tank to make a hole as Bella used her biotics to pry Jorthan off Kelvin before the former and latter began running circles around the collection tank.

"Uh, guys?" Zach said as he watched Jorthan corner Kelvin as Bella erected a biotic barrier between the two of them as they turned to look at him crouched next to a hole he had cut through the tank.

"We have a pirate ship full of Vorcha and captives remember?" Zach sighed as Jorthan reached over and cuffed Kelvin upside the head once the biotic barrier faded from view as Bella punched the Krogan on the shoulder to get his attention.

Once the childish antics ceased between them, they went through the hole in floor, stopping to patch the hole within seconds after Jorthan slipped his bulk through before they moved on.

They were in the substructure of the deck, most ships had a minimum of three meters between decks to allow room for all the wiring, power cells, water and oxygen vats, but Vorcha crammed the same amount of stuff in a space half as big, making it a tight squeeze for the largest member of the team. A short distance later and they reached a maintenance hatch that lead to an empty storage room as Jorthan tried to clean himself as best as he could as he eyed Kelvin with a promise of revenge in his eyes before Kelvin managed to stepped around the angry Krogan and began hacking into the ship systems from a nearby terminal.

"Okay, I've got a complete count of captives," everyone perked up at this news as Kelvin began his hacking, "looks like the forward cargo bays have been sealed off with two thousand captives in each bay, must be a tight fit from the looks of it, only sixty pirates left on the ship and- uh oh."

"What is it?" Bella asked as Jorthan began cleaning his weapons off.

"Only about a dozen are Vorcha, must be the skeleton crew," Kelvin began furiously typing away on his omni-tool now, "looks like we got twenty turain mercs with a couple asari commando teams, a few krogan and the entire bridge staff is human, seven of them."

"Any mechs?" Zach asked as Kelvin inputted a command into his omni-tool to run a search.

"Yep, got four walkers in the cargo bay leading to the forward bays, must be LOKI assault mechs or maybe a modified cargo mover if we are lucky, most of the mercs are located in the bay with the mechs and in the crew quarters leading to the empty cargo bay filled with a bunch of mercs." Kelvin explained as Bella began running her own hacking protocol with her own omni-tool.

"Anything on taking control of the ship from here?" Zach asked as Jorthan finished cleaning his shotguns off enough to suit him.

"Please remember who you are talking too," Kelvin rolled his head on his shoulders before flexing his three fingered hands, "already done, should we alert the crew yet?"

"No, I want to take care of the crew if we can," Zach smiled as an idea came to him, "can you send out an alarm that an impact ruptured a section of the hull near the engines? Give them something to worry about, we can take out most of the crew instead of alerting the mercs of anything wrong."

Kelvin wiggled his hand, "Give me five minutes, but we are going to need a legit hull breech in order for the sensors to trip a loss of pressure."

"Jorthan," Zach smiled as he watched the Krogan turn around, "see if you can blow a decent sized hole in this ship without scuttling us in the process."

"With pleasure." Jorthan motioned for Bella to follow him as they left the storage room, leaving Kelvin and Zach behind to continue hacking the ship systems before anyone wised up.

Kelvin was also able to discover where the Asari Queen, the mastermind behind this entire operation who used the Vorcha as a scapegoat for the whole thing, she was in the captain's quarters with a group of asari commandos, no doubt having a party on a successful mission. Because Zach was also snooping around inside the ship's databanks, he was able to "salvage" a few hundred thousand credits and he found a schematic for a new type of heat sink that would allow weapons twenty percent more shots to be fired before overheating.

The security inside the ship systems were terrible quality, Zach was able to scrap a few thousand credits from individual accounts of various members of the crew as he took over the surveillance system in the entire ship, making sure to blind the cameras in the areas Jorthan and Bella were in and getting a decent look at the opposition they would be up against, as well as the condition of the captives locked up inside each cargo bay. He even downloaded the codes for the door locks for every locked door in the entire ship and sent it to the others before he had an evil idea and decided to clear up a majority of the opposition as Jorthan began counting down.

Once the explosion shook the ship, Zach hit the release command override on the cargo bay attachment clamps that held the cargo bay full of mercs and mechs as the ship groaned from the abuse.

"Good bye boys, I'll see you in Hell." Zach said as he stepped out into the hallway with Kelvin at his back, grenade launcher over his shoulder as they walked towards the bridge and more importantly, the asari commandos making the largest group of defiance left on this ship.

"How many bombs did you use to blast a hole is the ship Jorthan?" Kelvin asked as they walked towards the bridge, encountering light resistance along the way from various members of the crew armed with pistols and the random submachine gun that were dealt with a burst from Zach's assault rifle or the overkill approach Kelvin took.

"Enough to blast several square meters of the hull off," Bella replied with a huff, "we also found three mechs Kelvin missed on his original scan, but I think the big guy is pretending they are Kelvin from the way he is ripping them apart and we're on our way to the bridge."

"Copy that," Zach paused long enough to lean around the corner and let his rifle deal out incendiary rounds that punched through the weak shields and body armor the crew was wearing with relative ease, "we'll meet up at the bridge so we can take out the asari team."

A Vorcha burst from cover behind a few crates, a pistol in one hand and an energy knife in the other as Kelvin blasted him with grenade to the chest as he switched out for his flamethrower as Zach primed a grenade and tossed it into another room, listening to the equivalent of a Vorcha screeching, "Oh Shit!" before the grenade obliterated three of them in an explosion of fire.

"Watch out, we got a biotic moving up." Kelvin warned as a crate covered in blue energy rocketed past them as he launched a sabotage mine from his omni-tool as Zach kneeled and blind fired down the hallway, earning a pained screech from a Vorcha as he peeked around the corner and spotted an asari hiding behind a crate.

"Got em." Zach said as he opened up with a long burst that ate through her shields and armor, distracting her from the stun mine that hit her in the face, followed up with a grenade and burst of fire from Zach as Kelvin lit up two more Vorcha, one of them packing an assault rifle.

"The ship should be clearing the asteroid cluster in a couple minutes, once the Alliance sees it, they'll come running sure enough," Kelvin narrated as they reached the bridge, finding most of the bridge crew sporting larger hardware once they crossed the threshold, "I really don't want to wind up having to fix most of the damage."

"Don't worry about it," Zach said as he popped out from cover and blasted one of the humans away with his assault rifle, "the damage will buff right out, a little patch here and some new paint to cover the scorch marks and she'll be good as new."

Kelvin sighed, "I hope the Alliance doesn't blast it out of the water either, this ship will help my fleet out quite a bit."

Zach did bother answering as a blast of biotics came tearing across the bridge, missing him narrowly as he tossed a grenade in the general direction it had come from, noticing that a half dozen asari commandos were advancing towards him.

"Biotics and a lot of them!" Zach told Kelvin as he tossed three more grenades, enough to take out four of the asari and stop the rest of them as his Quarian companion switched to his grenade launcher and began lobbing rounds at the asari to stall them.

"Wondered when they would decide to show up." Kelvin commented over the com as he scored a direct hit on one of the asari commandos with a grenade, knocking away her shields and blasting one of her arms off as the others decided to use barriers for additional protection and concentrated their fire on the Quarian.

"Bella? Jorthan? A little help would be great about now!" Zach yelled after a biotic warp destroyed the rest of the console he was hiding behind as he brought down another commando with a long burst from his assault rifle as Kelvin scored a direct hit on the last asari standing, no doubt the self-professed Queen.

"You think you can defeat me?! I am the Queen of all biotics! I laugh at your feeble attempts to try!" She shrieked as she launched another attack.

Her shields had been wiped out from the blast, but she simply covered herself in a barrier and started firing a shotgun at them as she slowly advanced, her intent was to have them overheat their weapons wasting shots at her biotic barrier before she got close enough to killed them, but Zach was no fool when it came to fighting biotics as he started tossing grenades at her feet, knocking her off balance as her barrier started to fail. He didn't dodge out of the way fast enough as he got hit by a blast of biotics, some kind of warp prism that could do some serious damage to anything trapped inside, especially when an asari was the one in control of it as the look on her face told Zach that he was at her mercy as she lifted her arm to launch him into the nearest solid surface.

"I will destroy you and take back my ship!" The asari screamed as her aura of biotic energy increased, restoring her barrier as she cackled.

"No you won't." Zach snorted as he focused.

Needless to say she was surprised when Zach laughed over his external speakers and concentrated as his aura changed from bright blue color of the biotics the asari had caught him in, to a deep purple before becoming a deep scarlet as the asari discovered that she no longer had any kind of control over the armored human in front of her as she watched, in awe, as a glowing red orb of energy appeared in each hand of the human.

"Didn't expect that did ya?" Zach laughed as he launched a blast of his energy at the stunned asari, "who would have thought that the human was a mutant eh?"

His first blast knocked the asari clean off her feet and slammed her into the opposite bulkhead with enough force to shatter her barrier as she coughed up some purple blood and slowly got back to her feet as she reached for a grenade.

"I am Queen," she gagged as more blood dribbled from her mouth as she wiped her mouth, "you cannot defeat me."

"Sorry lady, no hard feelings." Kelvin perked up as he fired another sabotage mine at her.

A hail of mass accelerator rounds began showering her from four different directions as Jorthan and Bella showed up to join the fight, her shields quickly broke down as Jorthan covered himself in a barrier and stomped across the bridge before blasting her at point blank range in the chest with a shotgun in each hand.

"Nice shot big guy," Zach commented as he passed the smoldering asari on his way to the captain's quarters, which contained the passcodes to open the cargo bays holding the captives as he watched the ship break free of the asteroid cluster and enter open space, "want to make sure she isn't the last one before we let the civvies out?"

Bella crouched next to each dead commando to check them for some form of identification as Kelvin went over to the nearest terminal still functioning to take control of the ship as Jorthan followed Zach into the lush quarters, crammed with crates of weapons, ammo mods and upgrades, along with plenty of credit chits that went into their pouches as Zach searched the rest of the ship.

"Good news is that the captives are alright, no booby traps or suicide charges anywhere," Kelvin said as finished his scans of the hatches as Jorthan stared on, drumming his fingers on the barrel of his shotgun with irritation, "the ship is at a standstill and the Blade has been contacted, they are ten minutes out."

"Tell them to hang back and wait," Zach said as he unsealed his helmet and sat down on a nearby crate, "last thing we want is for some Alliance new hat to take a shot at our ship if they see it berthed with this one, we'll tell them once we make contact."

"How many frigates will they show up with, anyone want to make a bet?" Bella asked as she took of her helmet before scrunching her face up at the smell of Jorthan.

"I'd guess six at the most." Zach answered as the others looked up.

"Four." Jorthan said through his external speakers because he wasn't willing to take off his own helmet just yet.

"Three at most." Bella said as Kelvin finished his scan and began working on the door.

"I guess five or so." Kelvin answered as he pried the panel off the console and began rewiring the door control.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Zach spoke after he overrode the public speaker system inside the cargo bays to his own com unit, "this is your newly appointed captain speaking, the Alliance will be arriving soon now that the ship has been relived from its prior commanding crew, so until we get these doors open, please remain calm and wait patiently, Satan's Rejects out."

"Uh Zach," Kelvin sounded slightly worried as he typed away on his omni-tool, "looks like the Alliance got here a whole lot sooner than we thought and they brought friends."

"Patch them through," Zach said as he slid his helmet back on and opened his com unit, "This is Satan's Rejects team commander to any receiving Alliance frequency on this net, please be advised that the hostile crew has been neutralized and the captives are safe, please acknowledge if you can hear this."

"Satan's Rejects, you will stand down as we accomplish boarding maneuvers and secure the captives, do not leave the bridge or else we will fire upon you." The reply was short and to the point as the four of them simply headed towards the bridge.

"Copy that Alliance, SR out." Zach replied as he sat down on the smoldering remains of a terminal as Kelvin set about powering the engines down and shutting the down the drive core, no doubt letting every Alliance ship out there know it would take half an hour before this ship would be able to move.

Speaking of Alliance ships, there were five frigates, a light cruiser and two refurbished hospital ships consisting of this intercept group as Zach stood in front of the bridge view ports as he watched the _Blade _pull out of the asteroid cluster and slowly join up with another frigate.

"Alright guys pay up." Zach said as he held out his open hand as the others grumbled and reached for a couple credits as the Alliance Marines rushed onto the bridge.


	2. Chapter 2: Satan's Rejects

**Chapter Two: Satan's Rejects**

Seven thousand two hundred and twenty-eight captives and three pirates were taken from the Vorcha ship, another fifteen dead mercs, nine wounded mercs and roughly four hundred wounded captives were transferred to the hospital ships accordingly as Zach had a brief hashing out with the squadron commander over the fate of the Vorcha ship. After the marines searched the ship and confiscated all of the weapons, navigation schematics and other assorted illegal hardware scattered around the ship before handing it back over to the _Blade _for later disposal.

What Zach actually wanted to do was hand control of the ship over to Kelvin so he could later pass it off to the Quarian Flotilla, every ship counted for them and they would gladly accept a ship in this kind of condition, after a little hull patch and some patched command controls, the ship was good enough to move underway for FTL travel as the team moved back onto the _Blade. _

"Welcome back boys and lady," Zota, the captain of the _Blade _greeted them as his mandibles parted in what was often declared as the Turain grin until he caught a whiff of Jorthan, "Spirits bless us, what have you been crawling in you oversized varren?"

"Kelvin dumped a load of crap of him," Bella answered as she removed her helmet and trudged out of the airlock, letting the trio of Quarians pass her as Jorthan merely glared at Zota before heading towards his quarters, "hence the reason why he stayed behind to pilot the Vorcha scrap heap we're dragging back to the Migrant Fleet."

Zota laughed, "That poor bastard better sleep where a Krogan can't go or else he'll wake up naked."

Zach smiled as he removed his own helmet and walked to the elevator leading up to the Crew Deck so he could get out of his armor and get some chow after a shower as Zota went on his way to inspect the payment given by the Alliance squadron commander, mostly repair supplies, some larger grade power cells and several replacement parts for the ship. Supplies given for free were taken as payment for the rescue, they would head back later and claim the proper reward once they got done delivering the Vorcha ship to the Quarian Fleet, which would only take four days according to Kelvin.

The _Blade _was a heavily modified Alliance _Jerboa _class frigate that had been given a much larger drive core as well as a few upgrades, but there was plenty of room for future upgrades, but Zach wasn't worried about turning the ship into a battle fleet class ship of war. For the most part there was only eight permanent members of the crew, Zota had five Turain and three Asari, but he allowed no more than four Quarians onboard at a time due to the fact there was only one compartment retrofitted into sterile enough conditions for any Quarian to get out of their suit without contracting any kind of illness. Not that there was a problem with any of the crew or the combat team which consisted of Zach, Jorthan, Bella and Kelvin, everyone got along fine and everyone did their job.

Satan's Rejects were a band of misfits, mercs, outcasts and exiled individuals that worked in one field of mercenary work that few did successfully, rescuing slave captives from pirates or kidnappers. Most of the time they didn't even operate under contracts or contact interest groups to be hired, they mostly went around searching for pirates and neutralized them, earning a great deal of respect from the Alliance and the Council controlled space systems and a lot of other people in the process. Many people could agree that SR had the one of the highest success rates when it came to taking out ships filled with pirates and captives without having to deal with bloodshed, but then again none of the people working on the SR team could be considered saints.

Much like the name implied, no one was perfect, but then again no one really cared about the individual past records when it came to the impressive track record SR held, twenty-five pirate ships captured with an assorted forty-seven thousand captives rescued and an unknown number of pirates either killed or captured. Five years ago they had started this business and they could quit this particular job any time they wanted, every single one of them had enough credits to retire in any system they wanted and that just wasn't for any of them.

Zach walked out of the elevator and reached his personal quarters, the SR motto and decal painted across his door with his moniker as well.

The SR decal was a picture of an Asari dressed in black leather from throat to ankle, a white angel wing on her right side and a black demon wing on the left. She also had a pair of black horns sticking out of the top of her head, a flaming halo sitting on top of her horns, one of her eyes was gold and the other one red, a ball of biotics in one hand and a ball of fire in the other. She also had a tail that wrapped around her left leg as the jaunty "come hither" look on her face completed the picture, Zach thought it was kind of funny, but he had painted the decal one day after he had arrived at the _Blade _several years.

Underneath the full size image was a motto in Standard English, "When you need to hunt down the Devil, call for the Rejects."

Directly underneath that was a simply name painted, the top of each letter on fire and several drops of blood beneath the name to add to the effect.

_Angel._

Once his door slid shut behind him, Zach went through the motions of removing his armor and suit, placing his weapons within the proper weapons rack as he inspected his equipment for any kind of damage before he slipped off his omni-tool, transferring the credits to his personal wall safe in his quarters and uploading the weapons mods to his private terminal before he placed the weapons he confiscated for himself near his workbench and sat down at his desk.

Various weapon components, ammo mods, upgrade mods, tools, empty power cells and the random circuit board covered the surface of his desk as he nudged his latest weapon build to the side and reached for another empty power cell, roughly an inch thick and three inches in diameter as he clenched it in his fist and channeled his energy into it, watching as the modified power cell absorbed the raw energy from his own body and filled the cell in a manner of seconds as he reached over and put the cell into the equipment panel along the other wall before he typed in the command on the terminal. The digital display screen on the power cell reflected a set of numbers, the star date and the number of rescued captives from today as Zach stood up and walked over to the wall covered in glowing power cells and slid the new one into the next slot and went back to his desk.

Each time they managed to take down a ship or take out a pirate base and rescue any number of captives, he always put up another power cell as a reminder, one of his many quirks as he decided it was time to take a shower before heading down to the Mess Deck and scaring up some food.

His shower was quick and he dressed in a loose fitting body suit as he strapped on his gravity boots and his pistol for now, passing by the other rooms containing the rest of his squad, they all had the same decal, except that the names changed for each door.

For example, Jorthan was _Harbinger_ and Kelvin was _Gizmo_, which left Bella with the nickname of _Mystic._

Zach remembered that he had painted each door after each one of them joined the SR and completed their first job, not that it was a bad thing, the nicknames also doubled as codenames when they were in the middle of an operation and also when they were messing with each other.

From the pile of assorted garbage sitting in a neat pile on the floor on front of Kelvin's door told him that Jorthan had been here and was still upset with the Quarian, no doubt taking the joy in knowing that it would take longer for the mess to be cleaned up before Kelvin could sleep in his own bed. Then again, knowing Jorthan as well as he did, Zach was willing to bet that he was far from even in his own eyes and was plotting his next course of action against the Quarian as he slept, it was far from dignifying to have Vorcha crap all over his armor when it should have been blood.

Zota was already plotting a course for where the Migrant Fleet was hanging out these days, Kelvin was no doubt preparing the Vorcha ship to return to his Fleet, but it wouldn't be his place on the Vorcha ship, rather it would be one of the younger Quarians. Time and time again they sent ships back to the Migrant Fleet, but Kelvin was never the one to return with the ship, usually he sent another Quarian back with whatever they had managed to find, sometimes returning the captive Quarians as well, or sometimes he would take a few of them on with them so he could send them back with a ship and some new pieces of technology.

From what Zach understood, bringing a ship back would earn a Quarian the right to either become the commander of that ship or donate the ship into the fleet and become a recognized member of the Flotilla, so Kelvin was doing the younger Quarians a favor by sending them off with repurposed ship, most of the time the Fleet would send a reward or another Quarian team as payment. Zota was never one to complain about having a couple Quarians running around on his ship, they usually helped with the engineering and mechanical issues and by the time each one of them left, Zota found something new to install on his ship.

The ship was bombarded with thank you messages, claims for sponsorship and inquires for future jobs as Zach sorted through them until he reached the news reports and decided to spend his time reading up on the recent pirate attacks near Thessia, the Asari home world as he began tracking reports of increased smuggling activities near the Drake System with high reward demands as well. Not that Zach had any real say in where the ship was going, all he knew was that once Zota got ahold of something from his message terminal, if they were within the immediate area, they would act on it. Then again there wasn't a single person on this ship that liked pirates anyway, but then again he hoped that Zota wouldn't go after smuggling rings, rescuing stolen merchandise was just another way for Zota to get his hands on the spare parts and equipment he wanted without really having to pay for them and he could sell the rest of them off for extra credits.

Of course, smugglers tended to receive longer sentences from all the official manufacturing companies for the illegal transport and sale of unmonitored parts, whereas pirates only got the attempted murder sentence with a kidnapping charge for each person. Needless to say smugglers tended to be either smarter or more dangerous when it came to their operations, but it was a nice change of pace, not that Zach honestly cared, he just hated getting bored.

Zach returned to his quarters and climbed into his hammock to get some sleep, grabbing his omni-tool along the way as he decided to crunch some calculations on his next built. Because of his ability to draw untold amounts of energy from himself, he had been implementing various parts of his armor and suit to run off that energy, like he was the actual power source for his suit, discovering things that made his job a lot easier.

His armor ran primarily off him, so instead of using power cells, regenerative heating systems or redundant power sources, limiting the amount his suit could do because the idea was to make sure the suit would have enough power to function, so with Zach pouring raw energy into the power receptors built inside his suit, the sky was the limit. The color scheme of his armor was a matte black with camouflage patterns of grey and dark brown, a single blue stripe ran down each arm and leg and across the face plate of his helmet. The shields on his armor were the latest generation and he actually had three shield systems running in perfect sync, once one set failed, the next would already be active, but it took a lot of damage to take down each set of shields, then again he could hit the override command and have the shields operate at four hundred times their maximum setting for sixty seconds before the sensors burned out. Aside from the extreme shielding he had, there were also the five weapon slots, three on his back and one on each thigh, four pouches across his chest and his belt of eight pouches where he could easily reach them.

Of course he also carried several energy blades as well as top of the line reinforced alloy knifes for when he was feeling old school, or just needed to cut something without destroying whatever it was. His suit came standard with gravity boots and magnetic pads on each hand so he could scale just about any surface when he needed to.

He had six grenade pouches on his chest plate as well, just because he was always comfortable knowing that he had enough explosives on his person at any given moment to destroy just about anything. He carried two pouches worth of explosive materials that could breech the hull of a ship along with a handful of detonators for when he needed a heavy hand approach and didn't have Jorthan to back him up. For a lighter approach he carried multiple hacking programs on his omni-tool as well as three OSDs for collecting information from a computer system before it got deleted and he carried two small spy bugs, miniature drones armed with cameras, sensors and a powerful stun laser strong enough to render someone out cold for at least a few minutes.

His HUD contained many useful things, such as enhanced vision optics, VISOR radar, low light vision, target identification display, power source detection, mineral survey programs, scanning sensors for just about anything he could think of, audio receivers, x-ray vision, translators and polarization features of his visor as well. The amount of power drawn from everything was beyond what a regular suit's capacity, so he had a secret weapon when it came to firefights and against biotics.

It seemed that his ability had the ability to neutralize biotic energy, making the devastating attacks most biotics could render on a living thing as annoying as a mere distraction and it was noted that his power was more potent than the typical charge contained in power cells. Then again Zach liked staying on the ship as much as possible and never went anywhere with less than two weapons on his person and he never left the _Blade _in anything less than full combat armor due to the fact that he was a human mutant and one of his caliber was rare, so he always had interest groups, various scientists of several races, private organizations and of course, the usual offers he never answered to, granted he often had to shoot it out with whoever was tasked with coming after him. Most of the time he avoided going out whenever they docked in port, unless it was some border colony or they were not stopping for very long.

The Alliance was even smart enough to know that provoking him wouldn't get them anywhere on his good side, after demolishing the random black ops team sent to "neutralize" him, granted he didn't hurt any of them, but he ruined four million worth of Alliance hardware in fifteen minutes and left the thirty man team locked up inside of the remains of a destroyed Kodiak with a functioning beacon left on transmit to let someone know where to find them. That happened close to six years ago and the Alliance still wasn't on speaking terms with him, they were smart enough to know that pissing him off would result in a lot of property damage and a lot of paperwork to fill out, so they tended to leave him alone and throw him the occasional bone once in a rare while when he got on their good side, which wasn't as often as he thought.

Zach was scrolling through his messages when one caught his eye and he opened the message after going through his typical scan to make sure it wasn't junk mail, spam, bugged, tracked or some kind of virus.

_From: Capt. Paula Tyson_

_To: Angel of the Satan's Rejects_

_Heard about the action you pulled off_ in the _Rehius System with those pirates, turned out that the brass was wrong when they thought it was a bunch of Vorcha, turns out it was band of mercs lead by an asari with a longer criminal record than every war criminal in the last century, the Council was happy to hear that she was taken care of. Seems like you and your merry bunch of marauders have been making the Council head honcho Spectres look bad, rumor has it you might wind up as the first Human Spectre if you keep this up. _

_Word from the intelligence reports is that the Migrant Fleet has been very appreciative of the captured pirate ships you've been sending back to them, some might say you have an agenda with them, but we both know that isn't your style. Been wondering when you would come to your senses and come in, they might make you a damn Spectre for all we know, but with your track record, I think heads would roll first._

_Just wanted to let you know that the offer still stands after all this time, but then again drop by the house whenever you get the chance and say hello to Dad, you know he would love that._

_Sincerely Your Sister,_

_Paula_

_P.S. The brass is making a fuss over you, might want to lay low before they send the hounds out after you, that or else make nice and at least make an effort to help them out. There was a communications blackout in the Hades Gamma Cluster, old friend of mine is out there, would you drop by and see what is happening, because I'm worried. _

Zach made double sure that the message came from where it was supposed to come from, noticing that it had gone through three different screening programs and it looked like someone was watching her messages as well, but he wasn't surprised as he thought about sending a reply before he came up with one, enshrouding the real message within layers of scam, junk mail and usual stuff for the screening filters to choke on and he routed the message through a dozen com buoys with a four day long delay.

_From: Angel_

_To: Capt. Tyson_

_Let Dad know I'm fine, got a ship to deliver and some unfinished business. As for the com blackout, I'll see what I can do, but no promises._

_Angel_

He knew for a fact that his quasi-adopted family still looked out for him, he had been an orphan before he got adopted by a small family with a daughter already, his sister was the bane of his existence and his closest confidant next to his adopted parents, who saw him through thick and thin when he was growing up. Before he had an Alliance black ops team land in the front yard and attempt to take him through force, Zach had been happy growing up, even though he was mutant, his family still loved him and he sent large sums of credits or knick knacks back in time for birthdays, holidays and whenever he felt the need to. He knew that most of the money was being sent to the Alliance to pay off the damages he inflicted, long since paid for, but he hoped that his parents were using the credits instead of putting them in a trust fund for him to have when he came back home.

Fat chance of that happening, but they waited for him to come back one day, Zach was sure that one day he would return, but for now he was worried that the Alliance had his parents place staked out 24/7.

Setting his omni-tool aside, Zach decided that now would be a good time to fall asleep as he wrapped himself up in a blanket and kept his usual weapons within reach, he always slept with at least one weapon, granted it was a heavily modified with shredder rounds so it would ruin anyone's day if they tried to sneak into his room.

Unless they happened to be Bella, Zach didn't even tense up when a pair of warm hands wrapped themselves around his shoulders to pull him into a soothing embrace as he sighed, knowing that the asari had crawled through the floor panel again, but he didn't have the heart to tell her to leave.

"Good job today handling that queen," Bella rasped into his ear as she snuggled closer to him, pressing her chest against his back as she tightened her arms around his chest, making sure to leave his arms free, "I must say that the look on her face was worth the trouble we went through."

"Yeah, it was one of my finer moments I like to think." Zach sighed as he felt Bella entwine her legs with his to make herself more comfortable as he kept his pistol on one hand and a knife in the other.

The arrangement between them was an odd one to say the least, no one else knew about it, they saw it as a way to cope with things and they both benefited for having a good night sleep when they slept in each other's arms, but there weren't deep feelings between them. Zach knew that Bella was different from other asari, something about being a genetic disease that had her biology changed when she was a child, so she could sustain her life force by sucking the energy from any living thing, often time killing in the process, making her highly unwelcome in most asari circles and the target of most asari judicators.

Contrary to popular belief, she wasn't a mindless killer that sought out victims, unless it was after a firefight and she needed to satisfy her cravings. Compared to other asari like her, Bella was a saint and in control of herself, apparently her dream of becoming an asari judicator still lived on in her current state, so she wasn't out killing things left and right. To put it in perspective, she needed to use her ability to satisfy her cravings, least they got out of control and resulted in her doing something terrible, thankfully it wasn't very often and all it took from him was expending a little bit of energy for her absorb, helping her kick the habit of needing to kill people for that hunger.

Zach knew that he expended energy in his sleep, especially when he was having nightmares and if someone didn't wake him up, he would demolish the ship if he had a really bad dream, so Bella got the ambient energy he let off and would be on hand to wake him up if he had a really bad dream before he destroyed his room, hence the reason he slept in a hammock.

"Will we be going after more pirates after this?" Bella whispered as Zach grunted a response while shrugging his shoulders, ignoring the agitated sigh as he closed his eyes.

"I need to go home and confront my mother." Those words snapped him out of his near slumber as he rolled over to look at Bella, propping himself up on one elbow as he arched an eyebrow at her.

"Are you sure? They will kill you the second they see you." It was more of a statement than a fact as Bella looked away, uncertain as Zach stroked her scalp, feeling the bumps on her head as she rubbed her arms.

"This is something I need to do, something I can't put off for long and if I can show my own mother that I am not a ruthless murderer, than maybe I can return home." Bella explained as Zach simply caressed the top of her head, knowing that it soothed her as she fidgeted with her hands.

"How will you control your urges?" Zach asked as he kept the relaxing scalp massage going, knowing that it was distracting her and loosening her up as she sighed again.

"I was going to ask you for a favor," Bella said as Zach stopped the scalp massage he knew she enjoyed so much as she simply stared at her, "I need a power cell big enough to sustain me."

For a long moment Zach didn't move before he got up and slowly climbed out of the hammock without disturbing her as he walked over to his workbench in silence, setting the gun and knife aside as he sat down in his chair.

"It'll have to be something larger than a regular power cell," Zach said as he reached for various components sitting on the bench, "have to contain quite a bit of energy to last a long time, but small enough to carry around, so it would have to be small."

"You mean you'll do it?" Bella asked as she sat up in the hammock, drawing the blanket around her shoulders.

"Of course, but we'll have to give it an extensive trial run first before we send you off with into the middle of asari space without a real good substitute," Zach turned around to face her, "we're going to put you through your paces first, make sure it'll work you know?"

"Why will you help me this way?" Bella asked as she slowly got out of the hammock and walked across the room.

"Call it closure, knew you were going to home someday and I guess I owe you for all the times you saved my skin," Zach turned to look back over his shoulder, "which is more than I can repay in this lifetime."

"Nonsense you fool," Bella cursed as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and rested her cheek on the top of his head, "in my five hundred years no one has ever accumulated so many life debts from me in such a short time as you have, aside from Jorthan or Kelvin of course, but why would you help me so?"

"The way I see it, you and I aren't so different." Zach reached back to caress the back of her leg while looking over the inventory list he had to see what materials he had to work with.

"You are the same, but not the same as your fellow asari sisters, I myself am human, but at the same time, not quite human enough at times," Zach leaned his head back into her chest as he sighed, "some would go as far to say that we are nothing more than outcasts in our own society, feared, loathed, coveted or shunned, it matters not because we live on the fringes."

"SR has been the closest thing to a brood family I have felt in a long time and my time has come to return home, atone for my past sins and prove that some of us are worthy of the name asari," Bella spoke as Zach slowly got to his feet and pulled her back to the hammock, "I wish to become a judicator or die trying."

"Most of the asari we rescued knew what you were and were not afraid of you then, so hopefully your past deeds will reach the ears of the Asari Council." Zach murmured as he pulled the asari into the hammock after him, mostly to take back his blanket as they made themselves comfortable.

"I can only hope they feel merciful." Bella whispered as Zach tightened his grip around her abdomen in a manner to comfort her as he hummed softly into her ear.

Zach didn't say anything as he continued to hum gently, stroking her taunt stomach in a soothing gesture as he felt his eyelids droop as the steady breathing coming from her told him that she was already asleep as he leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head.

She was too damn good for him anyway.


	3. Mass Maddness: 3 A Wonderful Day Indeed

**Chapter Three: A Wonderful Day Indeed**

Bella was gone before he woke up the next morning and Zach got started putting something together to help her solve her problem, knowing that she had taken less energy from him last night. It came down to a simple belt design containing a power cell from a YMIR class mech, four times the size of a regular power cell and it wasn't a bulky cylinder, in fact he was able to craft it into a new kind of belt. The larger power node was two inches thick, four inches tall and ten inches long, but it had a slight contour and curved a bit and from firsthand knowledge he knew that it would set perfectly on her hips with a little innovation.

After adding the intricate panels onto the outside of the power node to disguise it, placing the attached panels into place before building an actual belt, meant to ride low and snug around her waist. He used heavy duty strength materials that would last, but remain light enough for someone to wear comfortably for extended periods of time and once Zach dived into this project, he decided to get creative with it. Using the best that he had, he managed to create the belt in just under an hour and it was simply black with no reflective surfaces either, because he couldn't help it, he added several attachment points for later customization and installed a series of pouches.

Giving it a practical use as well as making it highly functional for what Bella needed, he didn't know if she would be able to wear it underneath her current set of armor, but she could always get a bigger size.

As a personal touch, he added the glyphs Bella had on her face, that way anyone would know who the belt belonged to and Zach decided that if it was going to reflect the asari he knew, he added detailed etchings of battle on the belt itself. It was a simple display of art, every so often the scene would change from a particular asari firing an assault rifle to launching biotic attacks, his favorite scene was an asari carrying a child while firing a pistol at an unseen enemy, something he had seen Bella do before in the middle of a raid on a pirate encampment.

Once he was finished, he went down to the Mess Deck and found everyone sitting a table eating what was probably a midday meal because he had spent so much time working in his quarters.

"Catch," his warning nearly caught Bella by surprise as he tossed the belt to her, "got what you wanted, so you'll owe me the credits after you run a test trial."

The understanding look between them was enough as Bella nodded and clipped the belt around her waist and looked up, "Might be flashy enough to scare off the lesser asari when we make port, it'll have to do."

"Ha! All they have to do is see your face tats and off they run like scolded pups." Jorthan laughed as he shoveled varren steaks into his mouth while Kelvin inserted the tube of quarian safe food into his suit so he could eat as he leaned away from the flying spit and bits of meat coming from Jorthan's mouth.

"I think it looks nice," one of the crew spoke up as the asari walked over to get a closer look at the belt, "make some people think twice before fucking with you."

She turned to face Zach, "How much would I have to pay for one of those?"

Zach wiggled his hand side to side, "Meh, couple thousand at least, that took a lot of work."

Glancing back at the belt, she shook her head, "Too steep for my blood, nice job anyway."

Zota walked into the Mess Deck and sat down, slapping the ass of the asari as she walked back to her table, earning a playful smack on the arm and grin as Zota sighed and turned to face the group.

"Well, we picked a distress call in the low side com band and we are moving to intercept," Zota glanced towards Kelvin, "think those kids can pilot that ship back on their own or should we pass this off to the Alliance?"

"They are only one more relay jump away from the fleet," Kelvin shook his head as he tossed his empty tube across the room, "I don't see why they can't handle it."

"What kind of distress call?" Jorthan asked as he cleared his throat.

"Seems to be some kind of beacon located on one of the local planets, specifically the only one with a habitable atmosphere, not much in the terms of resources, so it isn't colonized." Zota answered as he looked around the table.

"Miners or some lost survey team?" Kelvin inquired.

"Sounds like a trap." Zach said as he shoveled food in his mouth.

"Seems like it, but we'll do a fly-by of the planet first before we break out the shuttle," Zota said, "sounds out of sync, so it could be a scrambled signal or someone left the beacon running."

"Any answer when you send an inquiry?" Bella asked as Zota shook his head.

"Could be a crashed ship, might be salvageable." Kelvin said while the others rolled their eyes at the Quarian.

"You always think that it is a ship," Jorthan grumbled as he swatted Kelvin on the shoulder, hard enough to send him into the table as his suit's speaker made a strange sound, "why can't it be a hundred pirates lying in wait for us so we can kill them?"

"You always say that." Zach shot back to the Krogan.

"Why not? At least we'd have some fun." Jorthan grumbled. 

"As much as I loved nearly getting killed, it seems a lot safer if we just had a ship to explore and salvage." Kelvin shot back as Jorthan grumbled again and started to bicker back and forth with the Quarian.

Zota shook his head as he glanced over at Zach, "If the scans pick up anything interesting, we'll send you down."

"What can you tell me about this rock?" Zach asked as Zota sighed and entered a few commands on his omni-tool, a second later, his own beeped at the data transfer.

As Zota walked off to go do whatever it was he did best, Zach went through the information provided on the codex directive on the planet, not that it mattered to much, but it at least gave him an idea on what to expect as the others dispersed from the table. Rather than look at Bella directly, Zach kept his eyes to himself as he scrolled through the data, learning several key features about this planet, aptly named Cronus for some strange reason, but it was a small planetoid, there were asteroids bigger than this speck of dust, but it had a stable atmosphere. It also had some local fauna garden variety oxygen creating species that could be considered nothing more than moss or algae in the few locations containing the proper levels of moisture. Cronus had several oasis spots around the planet and it appeared that the signal was originating from one of the larger oasis spots near the equator, which could mean several things, but findings in the past have declared this planet to largely unprofitable due to the low natural resources and minerals.

That clearly marked miners or survey teams off the list, the odds of a science team or a possible colonization effort likely, but the planet was off the beaten path, so Zach was willing to bet that it was either a crashed ship or even a downed satellite probe broadcasting some automated distress signal.

Nevertheless, Zach went back to his quarters and put on his suit and armor, prepping his assorted weapons and additional load out for anything that might happen while they were down on the planet, because the first fly-by revealed that wreckage from a ship was scattered across the surface. Turned out that it used to be a ship that had crashed, scans revealed that it had crashed recently, the impact crater was still warm from the entry burn, after working a little magic on the scanning sensors later also told another story from the readings.

It used to be some kind of asari destroyer class ship, the radiation readings and various energy signatures, as well as a veteran asari tech working the controls of the sensor equipment told them that they were looking at the remains of a dangerous vessel, now nothing more than a smoldering crater.

"We got life signs around the wreckage," Zach listened over his com as he settled himself into the shuttle as the other members of his squad, as well as a few extra members of _Blade _were joining them as well, "we got roughly forty asari life signatures clustered near the edge of the crash site, looks like they are located near a damaged shuttle."

"Can you hail them over the emergency channel to let them we are coming for pick-up?" Kelvin asked as he pulled the hatch of the shuttle closed behind him as the shuttle pilot, a turain that went by the nickname Turbo, fired up the engines and began running pre-flight checks.

"No, seems like someone is jamming the planet," Zota gasped as he sputtered his answer over the com unit for everyone to hear, "there is a batarian ship sitting in orbit behind the nearby star cluster."

"Do they know we are here?" Bella asked.

"No, because if they did they would have blasted us out of orbit already," Zota was silent for a brief second as Turbo got the shuttle powered up, "it is most definitely an older class heavy cruiser, haven't seen one of those in a long time come to think of it."

"Great," Jorthan sighed as the shuttle moved away from the _Blade _as it entered the gravity of the planet, "now I have something to kill."

"Is that ship down there even Asari Navy anyway?" Bella asked as Zach made sure his weapons were secured before locking himself into his seat as the turbulence started to get worse.

"No, either they have really deep pockets or they are some kind of high end asari spec ops," Zota answered as the shaking was making it hard to get comfortable, "I doubt anyone would just hand over a ship like that to a bunch of mercs without damn good reason."

"If the batarians are gunning for them, then they are friends of mine." Zach replied as he watched flames arch past the viewports in the shuttle as it was most definitely making an entry burn to avoid radar detection.

"Agreed, whoever they are they are going to need some serious help," Zota sighed, "just so you know, they have dispatched three shuttles and are heading towards the crash site."

"Turbo, put this bird down hard and fast, every second counts." Zach ordered over the com as the shuttle dropped her nose and began plummeting at a faster rate of speed.

The rest of the trip was choppy and nerve wracking as Zach held onto his restraints to avoid getting smashed around in his seat as the shuttle suddenly banked to the left, he made the mistake of looking out the nearest viewport to see mountaintops flash by before the shuttle abruptly leveled off.

"I hope they don't have AA waiting for us," Turbo muttered over the com as the engines screamed to full power, effectively slowing them down, "we are reaching the drop zone in thirty seconds."

The shuttle came in low and fast, popping up as it flared for a landing, the rear ramp was already halfway down before they even hit the ground. Zach was the first out of his seat and off the shuttle, his rifle up and ready to go as everyone else followed behind him.

Wreckage smoldered and lay everywhere as Zach realized that Turbo had landed a hundred meters from the damaged shuttle most of the asari were hiding behind, even from this distance he could see blue skinned figures scampering around setting up defenses as he stopped fifty meters away. Rather than risk having his head blown off, or worse, getting hit by some powerful biotics from a misunderstanding, he simply stowed his rifle over his shoulder and stood up in plain sight with his hands raised up.

"Think that is wise?" Bella asked over the com as Zach started walking towards the asari, leaving the rest of them crouched behind something with weapons drawn.

"We're not here to shoot it out with anyone," Zach answered as he watched one of the asari hand her own rifle off to one of her sisters and start walking towards him, "hopefully we can reach an understanding before the batarians show up and realize we are here."

Nobody said a word as Zach covered most of the distance to the approaching asari, due to the fact that he wasn't limping and he could easily scale the various obstacles in his way as the asari took her time, sticking close to anything she could hide behind in the event things went south, but even from this distance he could see the splashes of purple blood covering her armor. From what his scans could pick up, she had top of the line gear, her shields were top notch and the pistol she carried was the best one could get on this side of the Terminus.

Once they were within four meters of each other, the asari stopped and leaned against a boulder, Zach stopped for a brief second before he marched right up to her and took off his helmet.

"Knowing how Asari trust strangers, I permit you the right to search my mind to prove that we are not a threat to you and your crew." Zach said as he took a knee and bowed his head, resting his helmet on the ground and leaving his hands away from his weapons as the Asari before he paused.

"Not many willingly offer themselves to a mind search," she spoke as she removed her own helmet and stepped forward, "this is either a trap or a show of faith."

Zach could see her armored feet, each boot tipped with several short spikes that would probably do a real number against an enemy without plating or shielding to protect them as he felt a pair of hands rest on his temples.

"If you present a threat to my crew or myself," she warned as her fingers tightened around his head, "I will melt your brain and leave you here to rot."

"Just get it over with already." Zach replied as he heard faint mumbling in Asari he didn't bother trying to understand.

He felt a slight tingling at first as she melded with his mind, searching through his most recent memories, going deeper into his thoughts as he could feel her swimming around in his head, it wasn't painful, but at the same time it wasn't pleasant either. After a moment, it stopped as he noticed she had let go of his head and stepped back as he waited for the disorientation to go away as he stood up and faced the Asari.

"Satan's Rejects at your service ma'am, by the way you have a batarian cruiser sending reinforcements this way." Zach spoke first as he punched a few commands on his omni-tool before tossing her a capsule of medical gel as he glanced back at his team and waved at them to stand down.

"That mercenary group with the reputation of going after kidnapped slaves?" Her voice was thick, cultured even as Zach simply nodded and watched as she applied the medical gel to her own omni-tool so it could be dispensed through her suit's microprocessors.

"How many batarians?" She asked as she reached up and tapped her headset.

"Our radar picked up three shuttles inbound for this location," Zach knew she had activated some kind of program that could tell if he was lying, "we picked up the distress signal on our way to deliver a ship to the Migrant Fleet and thought we could help."

"No love for the batarians I presume?" She asked while cocking her head to the side, no doubt using her headset optics to get a closer look at his crew assembled behind him.

Zach grinned a feral smile as he chuckled deeply, "None from my crew if you want to know, call me Angel."

"Lazara," she smirked as she reached out with a free hand, "asari Spectre."

"Oh, that explains a lot," Zach smiled as he put his helmet back on, "I'll send the shuttle over so we can pick your crew up."

She nodded as Zach fell in step behind her, "Alright guys get back on the shuttle and head over here, we have an asari Spectre and her crew, so everyone on their best behavior, got that?"

After hearing the acknowledgements from his group and hearing the sounds of the shuttle taking off, Zach knew things were about to get dicey as Zota came over the com, barely understandable.

"Heads….ot…..inbou-….towar-….." It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what Zota was trying to say as Zach broke into a run.

"Lazara! We got shuttles inbound now!" Zach watched as three specks appeared off in the distance, growing larger by the second as the Spectre broke into a run as well.

"Move the wounded onto the shuttle and form a defensive perimeter, we have to hold them off!" Lazara showed as she snatched her rifle from midair as Zach watched his squad pour out of the shuttle and help the wounded asari into the shuttle.

"Hang on! I got the guns on target." Turbo warned over the com before the loud roaring sound could be heard as a stream of plasma fire ripped away from the top of the shuttle, taking one of the enemy shuttles down in a fiery explosion before Turbo shifted his fire and hit the second shuttle, critically damaging it before the third shuttle dropped out of sight.

Lazara turned to face Zach and spoke, but he couldn't hear her until he sent her the com frequencies to her omni-tool as the turret on the roof of the shuttle let out another burst.

"Got the third one, looks like it dropped off an assault team, can't see what exactly, but you have contacts heading towards your position," Turbo replied as he powered the shuttle up to full power and took off, "I can risk one pass on them before they wise up, so I'll make it count."

"Copy that Turbo, we'll be making our own way out of here, so don't bother for a return trip." Zach replied as he turned back to see his squad and the remaining seven able bodied asari capable of fighting were forming up along the perimeter for the incoming attack.

A trio of plasma explosions could be heard as a long drawn out burst from the cannon on the underside of the shuttle signaled that Turbo had made his strafing run on the batarians and was on his way back to the _Blade _as someone clamped an arm down on his shoulder as Zach turned around to see Lazara glaring at him.

"You have guns on a shuttle? What kind of mercenary group are you people?" She asked as Zach merely smiled at her through his visor.

"We're one of a kind you could say." Zach smirked as he turned his attention to the oncoming batarians that were brave enough or stupid enough to move forward once the shuttle was gone.

"Negative Angel," Lazara shook her head as she hunkered down next to him, "my mission involved the delivery of valuable evidence to the Council and that evidence needs to be delivered."

"Where is it?" Zach asked as he ducked in time to have a couple rounds fly over his head before he popped up and blasted the four eyed batarian in the face with a long burst from his rifle.

"It used to be in the aft cargo hold, but when we breached the atmosphere we jettisoned the hold to avoid leading the batarians too it in the event we were captured," Lazara explained as she launched a biotic pull at a hapless batarian, "it is inside a large orange crate, should be safe to approach."

"Should?" Kelvin asked over the com as Zach watched with grim satisfaction as another batarian was blasted in the face.

"What is it exactly?" Bella asked, her face hidden from view due to her visor as Lazara executed another batarian after she clotheslined the poor bastard and snapped his neck.

"An old data core processor we pulled from a batarian pirate base that has a large explosive grade system embedded inside it should anyone tamper with it." Lazara shot back as she launched another biotic attack.

"If it survived a landing like that, then I doubt the damn thing will go off when we pick it up," Zach said as he vaulted over his position of cover and advanced on another batarian, "we head for the cargo module and pick up the prize and then we hit the nearest relay on the bounce."

Zach was momentarily distracted as he punched a batarian in face before following up a close range blast from his rifle before a rocket whizzed past his face. Looking up to see the very unlucky batarian standing in the open with a smoking rocket launcher, Zach launched an orb of his energy at him before he could move and watched as the separate halves of the body hit the ground.

"How far is the cargo module?" Zach shouted as he picked up the rocket launcher, loaded it and sent a rocket flying towards a tight cluster of batarians as the rest of his team mopped up the last of them in a flanking maneuver.

"Couple hundred kilometers, why?" Lazara answered as Zach turned back to look at the damaged shuttle and then in the direction his HUD indicator was pointing.

"Kelvin, can you take a look at that shuttle and see what you can do?" Zach asked they regrouped.

Kelvin looked up at the damaged shuttle before tilting his helmet to the left before rubbing his hands together as he looked over at Zach.

"Give me ten minutes." He said as he practically dived into the shuttle to start doing whatever it was he needed to do as Zach set the rest of the squad to form a defensive perimeter around the damaged shuttle before he went around gathering up various heavy weapons the batarians had used against them.

"That shuttle is more scrap metal and busted components than a flyable platform," Jorthan commented as he hefted a rocket launcher over his shoulder while counting his stockpile of rockets, "and you want to take it halfway around the planet to pick up a cargo module when we have a perfectly good shuttle, armed with cannons, up in orbit right now?"

"We have the best Quarian mechanic the universe has to offer," Zach answered as he tossed several proximity mines out into the open areas around the shuttle while Kelvin began working on the port booster, "all we need to do is wait until our wonderful mechanic puts this ship back into operation."

"That is your plan?" Lazara asked as she looked at them with an odd look on her face, "That shuttle was hit by a medium grade anti-ship laser pulse, hit by all kinds of debris and crashed with absolutely no power, how do you expect to fix that thing?"

"I fixed it!" Kelvin hollered over the com as the shuttle began to power up.

Zach glanced over at the Spectre and her shocked crew, "Don't worry, one day you shall understand the miracles I am capable of granting, but until then, get in the shuttle and hold onto something, because I never did get my operator's license for one of these things."

The cockpit was in shambles, but there were enough of the controls left as Zach discovered that he only had the central thrusters and the main starboard thruster functional, but he simply diverted enough power to each to at least get airborne as the shuttle strained for altitude.

The ship to ship radar on the console in front of him beeped a warning as Zach spotted another batarian shuttle headed towards them as Zach adjusted his course and pushed the throttles all the way forward and adjusted the controls.

"Hang on everyone," Zach said over the com as he adjusted the controls and evened the shuttle out the best he could as he turned it around and headed in the direction his HUD was telling him to go, "this might be close."

"What?" Kelvin asked as the shuttle suddenly rocketed upward and slammed into something, nearly knocking the shuttle out of the sky as Zach simply righted the wounded shuttle and poured on the speed.

The batarian shuttle he had clipped discovered what happened when something sheared off the dorsal thruster and most of the starboard elevator controls with the armored nose of another shuttle, doing nothing more than stripping the paint off the shuttle Zach was piloting and sending the other shuttle plummeting to the ground absolutely powerless.

"The fuck was that?" Bella shouted from the cargo hold as Zach spun the shuttle around to face another incoming batarian shuttle.

"Taking care of tailgaters." Zach answered as he swung the shuttle into a violent spin, in the direction of the incoming shuttle, watching as the other shuttle nimbly danced out of the way.

"Ready whatever heavy weapons we got and aim out the rear ramp," Zach ordered as he hit the command for the rear ramp control to drop, "you'll have a target in a few seconds."

"What are we even trying to hit?" One of the other asari shouted as Jorthan activated his gravity boots and held the rocket launcher in his hands as Bella join in, followed by Lazara who managed to snag another rocket launcher.

"I take it we are trying to hit that." Jorthan answered as the shuttle came into view before he fired twice, as the others fired as well, everyone else still sitting down fired with whatever they had as the cockpit of the other shuttle exploded into flames before they spun out of sight.

Zach spent the next fifteen minutes nursing the crippled shuttle along before they reached where the coordinates dictated where the cargo module was, spotting it immediately as he brought the shuttle into a hover.

"Hook the damn cable onto it already so we can get out of here." Zach ordered as the winch lowered itself as Lazara jumped out of the shuttle, wrapping the cable around the container before floating back into the shuttle with help from her biotics as Zach slammed the throttles forward again.

"Everyone better seal up because we are going into space in a few minutes." Zach said as he adjusted the shuttle enough to get the best altitude he could as checked the rear camera to see how the container was faring, everything looked alright as he checked the scanners for anything out of the ordinary.

Once they breeched the atmosphere of the planet, Zach positioned the shuttle just right as he spotted the _Blade _on the scanner, coming in hard and fast as he assumed manual control over the fuel valve injectors and turned them up to maximum before he opened the rear ramp again.

"Hope everyone is alright with a spacewalk, because this is our stop." Zach said as he watched everyone bail out of the shuttle, unhooking the container from the cable and pushing off in the direction of the _Blade._

After a few minor adjustments to the automated controls, Zach was moving out the shuttle and launched himself in the direction of the _Blade _as the shuttle powered up and turned around at top speed.

"Where is the shuttle going?" Bella asked as Zach landed on the side of the _Blade _and engaged his gravity boots and started walking towards the airlock while holding the hand of one of the asari that didn't have any kind of gravity boots.

"Oh, I sent it back on a return trip to the batarians," Zach chuckled evilly as he watched the flame trail of the shuttle, "in the energetic way a child greets a long lost parent at shore leave, with a ruptured fuel line."

"You sick man," Kelvin said as he grabbed onto his hand and pulled him inside the airlock, "never again will I repair any shuttles for you."

"Aw come on Kelvin," Zach pleaded as he squished himself in the opposite corner of the airlock as the rest of the asari piled in, "I re-calibrated the automated docking system to make it think it was reaching the twenty-fifth docking berth inside the ship."

"The most docking berths any ship that size would have could only have a dozen at the most." Lazara commented as the door sealed shut and the decontamination cycle started.

Zach frowned as he pulled off his helmet, "Oh, well then I hope it finds it alright on the other side of the bulkhead inside the landing bay, somewhere."

Bella shook her head at the antics of the laughing human and quarian as the other asari looked at them with questioning looks, "I am surrounded by maniacs."


	4. Mass Maddness Chapter 4: Delightful Surp

**Chapter Four: Delightful Surprises**

After getting out of the airlock and once the _Blade _hit the nearest relay and made the fastest jump to Council controlled space as fast as they could, the team placed the container in the shuttle bay and left it alone.

With twenty-six immobile asari with extensive wounds in the makeshift med bay transplanted in the portside cargo bay, Zota set a course for the nearest hospital facility to take care of them as soon as they dropped out of FTL, Zach was put in a pretty somber mood when he saw the four bodies carefully wrapped in plastic sheeting and placed in the airlock for now, until they could send them back to Thessia for proper burial.

With thirty extra bodies, the _Blade _was crowded, so Bella hid inside of Zach's quarters before anyone realized that what she was an Ardat-Yakshi, something most asari didn't like, but Zach knew sooner or later her secret would have to be revealed.

Zach decided to round up all of the weapons, to avoid accidental discharges and accountability of the hardware, needless to say he was surprised that he managed to collect all of them and deposit them in the armory as he gathered everyone in the cargo bay for an after mission debriefing.

Everyone on the ground team was present, including Zota and Turbo, as Zach walked in and stepped up on top of the crate to get everyone's attention.

"We have dropped out of FTL and we will reach the Citadel in five hours," Zach began after Zota gave him a brief nod of his head, "our plan is to dock with berth 176, as it is the closest to the medical center, best care the galaxy has to offer ten minutes from the airlock, we will keep the cargo under heavy guard until the proper assessment team comes and claims it."

"Due to your questionable backgrounds," Lazara glanced towards Zach and his team before she continued, "I have added you under my personal admittance code and waived any past charges as cleared, making you top grade citizens in Council space."

"Well, not all of us." Zach muttered as Bella turned her helmeted head in his direction before glancing at the hatch leading out of the cargo bay and slowly turned in that direction.

"What do you mean?" Lazara asked with a frown on her face as Bella began backing away slowly.

Zach lifted his arm and channeled his energy to grasp her helmet and twist it off gently before she could grab it as he caught her helmet and set it down, "Bella, turn around."

For a long minute, nobody moved as Bella squared her shoulders and turned around slowly, revealing the tattoos on her face as every single asari in the cargo bay tensed up and reached for a weapon as several of them flared their biotics.

Zach stepped in front of her as his own energy flared up strong enough to cover him head to toe as red lightening arced from his body, "Take one swing at her and I will throw all of you out the airlock, she saved your asses and helped more save more people than any of you combined, so I suggest you all calm down and accept what she is."

They all glanced at Lazara, who hadn't flinched the whole time before she nodded at them, noticing as Zach let his energy simmer out before she walked up to Bella and stood face to face with her.

"For one such as you to risk your own life to save the lives of innocents and your fellow asari sisters," Lazara looked Bella up and down before shocking everyone by wrapping her arms around Bella in a hug, "I would be happy to call you as my bond sister if you accept."

One of the few things Zach knew about asari bonding was that they didn't offer it often and that was when they wanted a potential mate, so when one asari asks another asari to be her bond sister, it wasn't taken likely, now the number of times an asari asked a Ardat-Yakshi to be her bond sister was probably unheard of.

Needless to say that everyone in the cargo was shocked when Bella looked at Lazara like she was insane and nodded slowly, much to the horror of everyone else as Lazara wrapped her arms around Bella, lowered her mouth to hers and kissed her. On the mouth. With tongue.

For several minutes.

"If you'll excuse us," Lazara said after she broke the kiss, Bella looked way out of it as Lazara faced everyone else in the cargo bay, "we shall be completing the bonding ritual in her quarters."

"Okay, glad we got that out of the way." Zach coughed as Lazara took Bella by the arm and pulled her out of the cargo bay with due haste, the latter looking back at Zach with a pleading look as the hatch slid shut.

Zota laughed as he slapped Zach on the shoulder, "Did you see the look on her face?"

"Shut up, can't you see that it means something beyond shallow feelings?" one of the bolder asari spoke out as Zach arched an eyebrow at her as he held a ball of red energy in the palm of his hand.

"I understand perfectly, I can't help but feel afraid for my friend who has saved my life many times," Zach replied as he sighed, "hopefully all ends well between them."

"I doubt a Spectre is weak minded enough to be killed by Bella in that manner," Zota chuckled as he shook his head, "she hasn't killed anyone that way in all the time I've known her."

"She is obviously not an exile, so how has she come to join your group if you know she is not a killer?" Another asari asked as Zota shrugged and jerked his thumb at Zach.

"Ask him." With that the smiling bastard slipped away before Zach could beat him into a pulp as Zach scratched the back of his head before stepping off the crate.

"I have never seen such a display of power before, may I ask what you are, aside from human?" Another asari asked as he stopped in his tracks before turning to look back.

"An outcast, the same as Bella, hero of none, home to only the shadows and can only hold the fringes of my society as my own." Zach turned abruptly and left the cargo bay and headed towards his quarters.

Passing Bella's quarters, Zach paused for a second before he continued onto his own and closed the door behind him, sealing his room as he began to remove his armor.

If anyone had told him that he would wind up rescuing an asari Spectre and her precious cargo from a bunch of angry batarians and having to head back to the Citadel under orders from said Spectre as the very same Spectre was busy finishing up with some kind asari sister mind bonding with a member of his squad, who by all rights of the galaxy should have been killed the moment said Spectre found out what she was.

Shaking his head at the madness of it all, Zach simply sat down at his workbench, the one place where things made sense to him as he started working on his oldest project. It had been an idea he kicked around for the better part of a year, so radical it almost was insane, but he knew it could be done as he gathered everything he would need and got to work.

First he took one of the many spare rifles he had and one of the extra grenade launchers, dismantling and removing various components before placing both weapons on the clear workbench.

The concept was a simple idea, he wanted to merge both weapon platforms into one single platform, an assault rifle/grenade launcher combination, something rarely attempted by weapons manufactures due to the large bulky size of such a weapon, due to the fact that the weapons would be far larger and much heavier than typical mass acceleration weapons of the day. Neither weapon could run off the same power supply, that was certain, but Zach had a plan for that as he slowly stripped each weapon down the bare components before he started on putting them back together. First he simply removed the unnecessary parts from both weapons, using the Tsunami Mk IX assault rifle platform because it was just what he needed in order to make this build work. Next he stripped off the shielding and the extensive reflecting plating off the grenade launcher, a low grade Hammer Mk IV model that was rated for overall decent amount of damage, range and radius of each shot, but the twenty-five second cool down between shots made it unpopular for typical infantry types.

More often than not, mechs carried grenade launchers to use against heavily armored infantry, vehicles or hardened structures, so infantry brought rocket, missile or laser launcher grade weapons to counter mechs, but it would be ideal in firefights against other infantry.

Of course once he built and tested a working prototype, he could sell the copyrights for the highest bidder and rake in the benefits, no doubt able to work out a contract with a lot of contractors as well, but he would have to test it vigorously.

It was merely a simple prototype, two weapons attached to each other, running off separate systems and together they managed to reduce a third of their size, much too large for this day and age, but Zach figured he would have enough time to work the bugs out of it.

Of course, putting them together was a lot more difficult than taking them apart, a few trials and errors on his part before he finished his latest project, roughly an hour before they would reach the Citadel when the door to his quarters slid open.

Zach took one look at Bella before the unstoppable shit eating grin spread across his face as he put the modified weapon down and clapped softly as Bella scowled at him and stomped across the room to punch him in the shoulder. Hard.

"Shut up you pig," Bella frowned as Zach started laughing, "it isn't funny, they nearly killed me."

"So," Zach paused for effect as he rubbed his aching shoulder, "how did it go?"

He nearly expected Bella to take another swing at him or launch a singularity into the middle of his room, so he was mildly surprised when Bella sighed, a faraway look in her eyes as she wrapped her arms around herself and looked down, a harsh purple blush covering her cheeks as her mouth hung open, trying to form words.

"That good huh?" Zach asked as he winked at her and let out a low whistle as she finally reached over to punch him again, but he dodged it easily as he laughed.

"Did you have to wear a gag or something because I couldn't hear you from here." Zach poked at her for fun as the blush darkened in color till her face was almost purple as she started chasing him around his own private quarters, clearly intent on inflicting serious some bodily harm on his person as he taunted her over his shoulder.

"Is she good? No wait, did she do the dirty with you?" Zach giggled as Bella shriek at him and vaulted his workbench in an attempt to tackle him before the door of his quarters slid open to reveal none other than Lazara standing there with an amused smirk on her face.

"Awfully rambunctious for an asari who has never had proper mind meld in her maiden years," Lazara chuckled softly as Bella froze and began fidgeting nervously as Zach sat back down in his chair, "to think you were even too tired to move a little while ago."

"I think you'll need to fix that," Zach said as the door hissed shut behind Lazara as she stalked across the room the pull Bella into a warm hug, "she requires a lot of exercise for her many outlets."

Bella was a vibrant purple as Lazara laughed softly and pulled her back against her front and rested her chin on top of Bella's head, it was then Zach noticed how much taller Lazara was.

"Oh this I know Angel," the purr Lazara made was enough to make silk wish to hear her as she nuzzled the side of Bella's neck while her arms tightened around her waist, "the things she hungers for are numerous and I've yet to truly sate her appetite."

Bella let out a shocked sound, close to a whimper really as Lazara lowered one of her hands lower, gently massaging the tender flesh just above her crotch while nipping her ear gently as Zach had the right mind to look away, earning a soft laugh from Lazara.

"Look at that my little sneak, it seems your human is too gentlemanly to watch you now," Zach felt his ears redden as the husky words as a soft yelp came from behind him, "of all your wildest dreams and you are afraid to live them out?"

For a brief second Zach nearly turned his head around when the unmistakable sound of a suit zipper was being slowly opened slowly and a high pitched squeal from Bella almost made him jump as he concentrated on not turning around to look before he heard the sound of someone falling to the floor.

Needless to say Zach almost got up out of his seat and headed for the exit when the intercom above his head turned on and cut through the obvious tension in the room.

"We are coming up on the Citadel shortly, all hands report to the cargo bay to aid the offloading of the wounded," Zota spoke in a ship wide transmission as Zach closed his eyes in a brief prayer of thanks, "light weapons only and helmets must be off when we dock, that is all."

Zach counted to ten before he stood up and turned around, facing the opposite wall as he reached his armor station and began putting it on, "Well looks like we got work to do ladies."

He just about died when he turned around to see Lazara and Bella still on the floor of his room, lips locked together as it appeared Bella was attempting to rip the floor grating up with her bare hands as Lazara on the other hand, was busy attempting to adjust something inside Bella's suit, vigorously Zach noticed as Bella's eyes rolled up into the back of her head once she saw him watching them.

"It was good for her to see," Lazara said as she withdrew her hands from inside Bella's suit, closing the zipper quickly before placing Bella in her lap as she stroked her cheek, "there is much she wants to feel and as her bond sister I will give everything."

She looked up to pin Zach with a single look as she drew Bella, who was no doubt unconscious, up into her arms as she pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, "She has never felt these feelings and they are all new to her, in all my years I have never met a creature this innocent in these things."

"Uh, yeah, she mostly avoided that kind of thing due to her nature," Zach answered as he finished putting his armor on as Lazara smirked and snuggled with Bella, who was slowly waking up, "it is a good thing she is still wearing the belt I made her, helps her fight off the hunger."

"I've been meaning to ask you about that," Lazara said as she watched Bella slowly wake up, "it was the only thing keeping her from becoming strong enough in our bond to cause me some serious harm, I hope to repay you someday."

A thousand dirty thoughts filtered across his mind as Zach shook off those particular trains of thought before he simply at pointed at Bella.

"You made her smile," Zach chuckled as the peaceful smile across Bella's flushed face stood out like a Salarian in a crowd of Krogan, "you are the best thing that has ever happened to her."

"No," Lazara shook her head as she bodily picked Bella up in her arms as she stood, "if not for you, this glorious union would have never happened, so I shall be repaying you one day soon and I don't think she would mind joining us when we get dirty."

Zach gulped as Lazara sashayed across the room, Bella finally waking up as she wrapped her arms around her lover's neck, looking away when she noticed Zach was still there, the cute purple blush rising in her cheeks before she glanced back at him and smiled before the duo stepped out of his quarters.

"Bad Zach," he scolded himself as he finished putting on his armor, "both of them could easily mind fuck you and know everything you were thinking, Bella is like that adopted little sister, with a really hot girlfriend."

Shaking his head and putting his game face on, Zach left his quarters and headed to the cargo bay to help move the wounded asari as the _Blade _started going through docking procedures after a few minutes, the rest of the crew standing ready for the cargo bay hatch to open.

A rush of medical techs and doctors rushed onboard armed with scanners, stretchers and medical gel dispensers as the crew stayed behind to guard the data core, still sealed up in the aft cargo hold as Lazara and Bella stayed behind with Zach and his team to guard it until the proper authorities could claim it.

In a manner of minutes, all of the wounded and dead were taken off the _Blade _as the heavily armed Citadel Security detail showed up with a handful of junior Spectres to guard a heavily armored shuttle transport to haul it off somewhere top secret, not that anyone was going to push the issue either as Zota ordered the crew to remain on the ship for now as Lazara talked with the C-Sec commander for a few minutes. In the hustle and bustle of the work going on around the dock, shuttles waiting for the last of the stabilized patients to be put aboard and whisked away to the medical center, while the dead were respectively loaded onto another shuttle.

"I have to conduct a debriefing with my superiors in an hour," Lazara caught his attention as she walked up, "C-Sec has agreed to protect your ship for the duration of your stay here at the Citadel while I work out the details for you and your people."

Zota nodded as he looked back at the _Blade _with a critical eye, "Looks like we can complete that overhaul starting now after the crew has had a couple hours of shore leave, though the work will have to quick or we'll get swamped with docking fees."

"Never mind that," Lazara waved her hand as she pulled Bella against her hip, "benefits of working with a Spectre is you don't have to pay a red cent for docking or fuel fees while you are here at the Citadel, as for repairs your ship might need, you'll have a dry dock berth to yourselves for as long as you need."

From the stunned look on Zota's face said all that was needed as he spun on heel to get repairs started immediately as Lazara gave Bella a wishful look before she stepped away, "I have to go my sweet, stay with Angel until I get back."

Zach looked away as they shared a kiss before the Spectre walked away with a jaw dropping eyeball popping hip swinging walk that had Bella staring in what could only be longing as Zach let out a low whistle after he took off his helmet, earning a scathing look from Bella.

"She got you bad girl," Zach drawled as he nudged her with his armored elbow gently as she sighed and nodded, "come on, we got some surplus to get sell for parts because we both know Zota is going to have a complete overhaul done on the ship."

"I want to be everything for her," Bella whispered as she followed him back into the ship, "oh what should I do?"

"Well, she is going to be coming out of a debriefing, no doubt upset and in need of comforting," Zach said thoughtfully as he dragged the first crate onto the gravity lift, "her boss is probably upset with her losing a ship like that, the way I see it, she might be under a lot of stress."

He glanced over at Bella, who seemed to be hanging onto every word he said as he wrestled the next crate of random bits of junk they had gathered over the last couple of missions.

"I think we got our work cut out for us, don't you think so my sweet?" Zach asked her as the scowl he knew so well returned to her face as she tossed a spare shield generator coupler at him.

"Oh shut up." She snapped as she grabbed another crate of assorted junk.

"Whatever you say my sweet." Zach chuckled.

"I will get you for that." Bella snarled as she flushed a vibrant purple, just as her omni-tool beeped.

"Who is it from?" Zach asked as he checked his omni-tool in the event Zota or one of the others had sent him a message as well as she answered the message.

"From Lazara," she frowned as she scrolled through the message details, "it has an audio file."

"Play it already." Zach smirked as he leaned in to hear as she hit play.

"Bella, I will meet you at the ship when I am done," Lazara's recorded message played, "would you wait for me at your quarters, I have some stress to work out and your energy is a perfect outlet."

Zach was pretty sure the dark purple of Bella's face meant she realized that she had played the message out loud as he abruptly polarized his visor and cut his external speakers so she didn't know he was laughing hysterically as she furiously buried the message in her omni-tool files.

"Not a word Zach or I swear to all that is sentient I shall remove your head."


	5. Mass Maddness Chapter 5

**Chapter Five: Hardly Working**

Between the two of them, they managed to load an entire gravity lift with most of the non-essential supplies that were just taking up space around the ship, Zota told them to pick up a few things after they got done selling everything off and to stay out of trouble.

They took a public transport shuttle down to the Lower Markets, Bella removing her helmet and sitting on the neatly stacked pile of crates deep in thought, not realizing that the other asari passengers in the shuttle moved away from her after they saw her tats. Zach knew that she was thinking about Lazara and he left her alone for now, but he knew he wasn't going to let her off so easily when she was a bond sister with an asari Spectre fully intent on "helping" her understand everything about their relationship.

He knew they were being followed by C-Sec as well, but he ignored them for the most part as they started on selling most of the low end tools, weapons, armor suits, schematics and mods at the smaller kiosk stands littering around the area. With the variety they had, it wasn't long before they were making several vendors very happy, due to the fact that Zach was feeling gracious, he headed for the few vendors operated by either Quarians or Krogans.

At the fifth kiosk, a female Quarian, Zach was able to sell twenty omni-tools for a song and bought three spare power cells that he said he needed for a project, leaving a decent sized tip in the form of a set of shotguns to sweeten the deal. Zach knew the quarian was flustered after he paid double for the power cell and sounded like a fool for leaving a pair of top of the line shotguns because they were "broken" and after he left a brand spanking new Delvon Mk IX omni-tool behind, he didn't know if he had given the poor quarian a hemorrhage from sheer joy.

"If it wasn't for the battle worn armor, crossbones and skulls and the SR decal," Bella mentioned as they walked away from the stuttering vendor hyperventilating over the omni-tool with a minor bug issue, "people might realize that you are nothing more than one big softie."

"I do what I can," Zach commented as he abruptly spun on heel and marched into another store, "watch the stuff for me, I need to pick something up."

Bella shook her head as she pushed the gravity lift over to another vendor operated by a Krogan as Zach walked into what amounted to as an intergalactic lingerie store, nearly sending the poor clerk into heart failure, giving the live asari modeling in the front window an appraising look before he browsed the selection for something to give Bella and Lazara.

"Excuse me ma'am," Zach asked the trembling asari behind the counter nicely as he looked over his shoulder, "I'm looking to get an asari friend a gift, sort of to celebrate their bond sister thing and I wanted to get them something that matched."

The asari tilted her head as she cleared her throat, "Have they bonded already?"

"As a matter a fact yes," Zach de-polarized his visor so she could see the grin on his face, "but her significant other just sent her a booty call an hour ago and I wanted to surprise her."

Fifteen minutes, a few thousand credits and a sealed bag later, Zach left the store with a grin across his face that he knew nobody could see as he caught up with Bella in the midst of a debate over the selling price for a missile launcher, leaving her none the wiser as he stashed his purchase in the bottom of an empty crate as he argued with the Krogan salesman for the better part of fifteen minutes before he walked away with several hundred thousand credits, five fewer missile launchers, half a dozen rifles less and a spitting mad Bella who was cursing male species in general.

"We got nothing left but the medical interfaces and whatever else the rest of them didn't want," Bella said after she finished going through the last crate as Zach glanced over the turain he had seen an hour ago, "think we should head over to the Wards and see what we can get?"

There was something about that turain that looked familiar, Zach decided as he engaged his helmet system to go through every second of recorded footage over the last four years as he wracked his own brain to try and figure out what it was about that particular turain that put him on edge before he simply put it off and followed Bella.

"Wonder how she is doing?" Bella asked as they took the next elevator down to the Wards as Zach turned to look over at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Sounds like someone is love struck," Zach grinned when she glared laser beams at him as he leaned against the side of the elevator, "I know you miss her, don't worry, she'll be back."

"I know, but I worry about her," Bella suddenly flushed a bright purple as she chewed on her lower lip, "it hasn't been more than a day and I yearn for her already."

Zach shook his head as the doors opened and they stepped out, pulling the gravity lift behind them as the crowd nearly swallowed them whole, Bella opting to climb up on top of the stack of crates as Zach, in his armor, lead the way as he struck out for the nearest vendor that looked interested enough to buy whatever they had.

By the time they managed to sell the rest of everything and purchase what was needed by Zota to finish repairs and the major overhaul that was coming, no captain would ever pass up and opportunity like this, especially when it came to taking care of the ship. Knowing Zota, all the latest and greatest upgrades he could afford were going to get installed, with four quarian mechanics and no docking fee to worry about, then it was all out work to get the _Blade _all prettied up and rearing to go. Not that Zach wouldn't have his hand in installing his own projects on the shuttle, all the armaments had been his work, effectively turning a shuttle into a quasi-gunship had paid off years ago when it really turned the fight in their favor, so he had browsed the largest weapons any of the vendors had, just to see what was available.

The current weapons on the shuttle included a dorsal mounted medium grade mass accelerator machine gun typically found on the nose of a Mantis gunship as well as a heavy grade vehicle mounted cannon located underneath the cockpit so it could be used to target ground based enemies that was taken from a Mako, it had taken him over a year to get everything installed and working properly. Since both weapon systems worked wonderfully, it became the best protected secret they had, of course anyone could put weapons on a shuttle, it was getting them too work was the hard part and the amount of software and sensors for the guns had taken up more space and power than the weapons themselves. Not that anyone really complained, especially Turbo, who got to play with them whenever he landed at a hot LZ and when the ground team got that level of fire support, it was time, money and resources well spent all around.

Putting missiles on the damn thing was drastically overkill, but he was just simply browsing his options, but then again he was just checking his options in the event he had enough time to work on upgrading the shuttle.

Bella was deep in thought as he turned to say something to her, but thought against it as he hit the command panel to take them back to the ship for now so they could drop off the gravity lift and empty crates, also so he could play the instigator as he thought about showing the gifts he had gotten to Bella.

That turain from earlier was following them, he was certain of that as he craned his head around to watch as the air car pulled up close to the transport as he thought about where he had seen that guy before, resting a hand on his pistol just because he was wary. Something about that guy set him on edge as he wracked his brain for a reason to hate this guy, but he couldn't place the guy as they arrived at the transport hub and got off, heading in the direction of _Blade _as he noticed that the turain had gained about half a dozen friends.

"Bella, when we round the next corner, get off the gravity lift and take it back in the direction of the ship," Zach smirked as she responded without flinching, "I'm going to hang back and introduce myself to these guys, C-Sec will be all over them in a minute, but I want to say hello."

Bella nodded as she hopped down, "Don't get shot because my Lazara wants your hide intact."

"My Lazara?" Zach asked as he watched her turn a light shade of purple, "Someone sounds possessive."

"Shut up and do your crazy human ritual of standing outnumbered against an unknown group." Bella scoffed as she brushed her hand on her shotgun.

Zach stepped to the side smartly after they went around the corner, hiding in the shadows as he crossed his arms and waited as the group passed his spot, intent on following the gravity lift covered in crates, at once they stopped dead in the middle of the corridor and looked around for him as he stepped up behind the turain without making a sound, a difficult feat in heavy armor, but he managed it.

"You, know, I've been trying to remember who you were and for the life of me I can't figure it out," Zach said as he rested his hand on the shoulder of the particular turain of the group as every single one of them tensed up at the sound of his voice, "so how about we introduce ourselves friend."

"Zachary Tyson, no middle name, wanted fugitive of the Alliance with infringements of resisting arrest, endangering lives through reckless behavior, assaulting members of law enforcement, consulting with known fugitives, destroying government equipment, multiple accounts of theft, robbery, murder and multiple accounts of aggravated assault," the turain said as he turned around to face him, "class four mutant, considered highly dangerous and wanted alive, my name is unimportant, but we represent the Elder Contract Bureau and you have an outstanding warrant Mr. Tyson."

"Uh huh, don't supposed you looked at my legal civilian standing in the last couple of hours did you?" Zach asked as he crossed his arms and tilted his head to the side.

"Guilty as they come," the turain spoke as the rest of his buddies spread out slowly to surround him, "now you are going to go peacefully or else we will have to hurt you."

A red hue of energy raced up his arm as Zach shook his head, "I don't think so buddy, check my current civilian status right this second or else I will be forced to hurt you and then have to explain to C-Sec, who are watching us right now, why I had to wipe the floor with you guys."

The turain laughed, "Wipe the floor? An old human adage declaring a threat of violence, don't say we didn't warn you."

It happened suddenly as Zach lashed out, hitting the turain in the middle of the chest plate before launching himself into the air, flipping backwards to avoid the half dozen stun rods coming at him as he activated his gravity boots midair. Firmly attached to the ceiling, Zach launched a blast of energy into the nearest turain before bringing his assault rifle to bear before any of them had a chance to react.

Bella came flying out of nowhere, pinning another pair of them to the floor, a human and a turain respectively, with her submachine gun and shotgun as the dozen or so C-Sec officers came out of hiding and surrounded everyone.

"Well, I'd like to file a formal complaint," Zach said as he dropped down from the ceiling and stowed his weapon, "these gentlemen were attempting to falsely arrest me for dropped charges."

"What a load of shit," the turain roared as he remained where he was, "that man is a wanted fugitive and I have all the authority to bring him in."

"Incorrect sir," one of the C-Sec officers showed his omni-tool to the turain, "he had been granted a clean slate, not to mention I can't think of one good reason as to why I should detain this man, so we'll take you down and book you for your offense while this fine gentleman goes about his business."

"What?" The turain furiously worked at his own omni-tool to see for himself as Zach waved at the officer before gathering Bella and heading back to the ship.

"This has to be some kind of mistake!" An angry bellow could be heard as Zach laughed, "He's supposed to be the one getting arrested!"

"Oh the benefits of saving a Spectre from certain death," Zach chuckled as Bella joined in on the laughter, "at least you get to the luck of being her bond sister."

Bella froze mid-laugh as she looked away, he knew for a fact that she was blushing underneath her visor as they waited for the airlock to cycle and let them in. After getting through the airlock, Zach dropped off the gravity lift in the cargo bay before he hid his purchase in his quarters before anyone saw the bag as he went by to pester Jorthan, the armory was his domain and he was happy to see all of the additional hardware.

Zota was pleased with the amount of credits they had managed to get from all the junk they had stashed away before he went over to see how Kelvin was doing with the beginning part of the overhaul operation, so he went back to the cargo bay in order to work a few bugs out of the shuttle that Turbo had mentioned to him.

In half an hour, he diagnosed the problem and was in the middle of finishing the repair when someone tapped his foot as he slowly extracted himself from the guts of the shuttle cockpit mainframe to reveal a tired looking Lazara standing there with a smile on her face.

"Hello," she smirked as he untangled himself from the various cables and power cords, "I heard about your little interaction with the bounty hunters today, excellent job by the way."

"Eh, felt good to prove that I wasn't the bad guy for once," Zach shrugged as he put his tools away, "I got you and Bella a little gift while we were out in the market, got it in my quarters if you want it, figured we can see how purple Bella will turn when she sees it."

"Oh?" Lazara asked as she leaned closer, "Just what did you get that would have my little pet blush such interesting colors?"

Zach grinned as he looked around before leaning forward, "Picked it up from that place at the lower markets, next to the Krogan weapons vendor, a matching set I suppose you could say."

A gleam appeared in her eyes as she patted the bag hanging off her shoulder, "I also got a set as well, but I think you have much better taste than me, because I got the ones with chains."

Zach laughed as he leaned against the command console, "I think you'll like the ones I got, much more suggestive if you get my meaning, but I don't how you're going to get her into it without ruining the surprise."

Lazara pursed her lips as she crossed her arms, "I could send her to talk to you while I put on my set and I know she'll listen to you when you present her with your gift."

"Can't promise I won't look once she is dressed," Zach grinned as he rubbed his hands together, "but I think you'll like it."

"Really?" Lazara asked as she looked around before running a program on her omni-tool, a second later it produced a high pitch whine Zach knew would give any kind of audio bug or recording device a fit as she leaned in closer.

"I might have need of your assistance later on," she whispered into his ear, "would you honor my request Angel?"

A trillion thoughts ran through his head as he stewed over the question for a full thirty seconds, his face becoming a mask as he leaned back and crossed his arms to think. There were a billion people in this universe that would give anything to be in the situation he currently found himself in, an asari Spectre and her asari bond sister, asking if he would honor a request to show up either before or after the initial bout of newlywed sex, and he was trying to come up with a morale reason to decline politely, if it wasn't for several key factors. For one, the only people who ever said no to a Spectre were already dead so he had no reason to say no to Lazara and the other member of this particular party was none other than Bella, an Ardat-Yakshi, that Zach had some feelings for and had worked with for years.

"I accept your request," Zach answered as he nodded, "I just ask if there is anything Bella is uncomfortable with, that we will not force her into it."

A sly, teasing smile spread across her face as she licked her lips, "Agreed, though I should warn you, I've seen her wants and desires, so don't worry about that."

Lazara then started to inform exactly what she wanted him to do to Bella, in detail as Zach pulled out his omni-tool to take a few notes, it was something he never expected from the shy and quiet asari he'd come to know over the last few years as Lazara assured him it was what she wanted, from the deepest desires of her mind. After having him repeat a few of her gestures she would give him, explain what she wanted him to do when she gave those silent commands and how to act during the time she called him in.

If it wasn't for the obvious sexual nature they were planning, Zach could easily see how this particular asari was a high class Spectre with her absolute attention to detail and her cunning tactics that Zach made sure to remember a few of them for the near future as Lazara finished and left, a knowing smirk on her face after she looked down and then back up at his face.

Zach sighed as he gathered up the rest of his tools, trying to appear calm and unconcerned as he waited for Lazara to leave before he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, trying to remember the last time he had sex.

"I'll need to borrow a few things," Zach muttered to himself as he looked at the information Lazara had sent to his omni-tool, "because she obviously wants to kill me."


	6. Chapter 6: Intermural Fun

**Chapter Six: Intermural Fun**

Zach finished his work on the shuttle, running a complete re-write of the targeting programing in record time it seemed, conducting the dry fire test and target identification parameters before he put away his tools and went back to the mess deck to get something to eat.

Kelvin was in the middle of tearing apart the main drive core and he had the other three Quarians helping him as replacement parts were being installed, as well as the various upgrades they now had the time to install, so Zach made sure to stay out of their way as he took his meal back to his quarters, deciding the a shower was in order as he started cleaning up his stuff. For the most part he threw all of the junk into a crate and made everything else look tidy, least someone got the idea that he was a packrat or something before he fiddled around with his latest project, deciding that each weapon platform would run on separate power sources for now, but he had an idea to integrate them in the event either weapon needed more power.

Zota dropped by shortly after he started to ask for help with the drive manifold, so he stopped what he was doing and helped dismantle the exotic piece of machinery, getting covered in lubrication, grime, dust and various shades of rust particles before he got back to his room.

First he had to complete the orders Lazara had given him, taking the chemicals and mixing them together to make the right concoction for what she wanted, something about male enhancement and to do with something about increasing his sexual stamina, but for all he knew, he was giving himself vitamin shots. There was something about it that gave him a warm feeling, apparently when he checked his omni-tool data for whatever this was called, he got several results, the majority of them declaring that it would cause him to emit a pheromone in the middle of intercourse that asari in particular, would find irresistible.

Not being the doctor or biologist, he had no idea if it would actually work, but he knew the odds of it being half as potent as it was supposed to be was slim, due to his mutant biology, however he applied the concoction in his private bathroom so he wouldn't have someone walk in on him while he was administrating the drug.

Once he was finished applying the lotion to his neck and chest, where it would soak into his skin and later start secreting with his sweat naturally, he left the relative privacy of his bathroom to get a clean set of clothes.

Only to find a nervous Bella waiting for him.

"Hey," Zach said as he snagged a rag to clean his hands off as Bella spun around, "what's going on?"

"Oh nothing," the purple blush slowly spread up her cheeks as Zach appeared clueless as she turned back to look at his project sitting on his workbench, "new build?"

"Yeah, been kicking the idea around for a while," Zach said as he tossed the rag aside, "isn't finished yet, but I'll work the bugs out of it."

Bella nodded as she toyed with a couple tools, whatever the reason was, he had an idea that it involved a very sexed up asari Spectre sending her to his quarters to try on her gift as he went over to the cubby he had stashed the bag and set it on the table in front of her.

"Picked up a little something for you," Zach said as he walked over to his chair and sat down, "figured that you'd want to impress Lazara."

She turned to face him, "Did she set you up for this?"

"Naw, I got this for you and her to enjoy when we were out selling stuff earlier this morning," Zach grinned as he watched her peek inside the bag with eyes as large as power cells, "she wanted you to wear the ones with chains."

A visible shudder went through her, either from shock or excitement he couldn't tell as she pulled out a mass of white material, a soft chiming sound echoed around the silent room as she bit her lower and looked at him in a pleading manner.

Without a word, Zach got up from his chair, locking the door to his quarters as he went, stepping around behind her as he reached for the zipper on her suit.

Bella set the outfit down on the cleanest part of the table as she wrestled with the body suit, peeling it off herself as Zach did his best to help, holding her upright as she struggled to remove her legs from the garment, pausing long enough to let Zach drop to his knees and grab the bottom of the suit and pull as she stepped out of the suit.

Asari physiology differed from humans, mainly because they lacked any hair, that and the fact they had pale blue skin completely, sometimes a lighter shade around the face or hands, but Bella was the result of two asari mating, meaning she was a shade darker than a typical asari as she hastily turned around, standing in traditional undergarments, simple black bra and panties as Zach admired the flawless skin of her back and legs as she fussed with the gift she was supposed to wear.

Having seen how it was supposed to be worn, Zach reached over and hooked a finger on either hip, drawing the panties down as Bella looked over her shoulder, a vibrant purple hue to her face and neck as Zach didn't break eye contact until gravity pulled the forgotten garment to the floor. She turned a darker shade when Zach reached up and fumbled with the bra clasp for a bit, having never taken off a bra with four different clasps that required a pin be pushed, must be a heavy duty kind often worn inside suits for extended periods of time. He caught the scent of her musk, a fruity scent that mixed with sweat and typical body odor, but asari had the advantage over human body odor, instead of smelling funky, most species agreed that asari tended to smell much better, especially sweaty. Another difference was that asari had a layer of muscle underneath their skin, making them much firmer and warmer than human counterparts, something that Zach noticed as he pulled the bra off her shoulders carefully, afraid of spooking her as she let it drop to the floor.

It took some work, but between the two of them, they managed to get Bella inside the outfit, which was skin tight and did many things.

First it was a one piece outfit, sleeves went from each arm to the shoulder, where it fused together into the collar, leaving only two narrow strips of material to cover her breasts, but nothing to hide the fact that Bella was nipping out, the material was a special blend of fabrics that teased the skin of an asari, so the fact she was already aroused stood out as easily the eyes on her face. Another thing it did was connect several wide straps of white around her midriff to the skirt portion, which barely covered her modesty, but the fishnet leggings going from her ankles all the way to mid-thigh added to the appeal.

To top it all off, a simple silver bell was connected to the collar piece, so with every movement she made, a soft chiming sound was made as Bella did her best to tug the skimpy outfit lower or over various parts of her body, but no matter which way she move, she couldn't half of everything as she turned a much darker shade of purple.

"You look wonderful," Zach said as he tucked his finger under her chin as she chewed on her lower lip, "she is going to love you."

"Do you think so?" Bella asked as she lowered her hands to cover herself as Zach laughed.

"She and I think alike," Zach grinned wolfishly as he scratched the top of her middle scalp crest in a soothing manner as she let out a soft groan, "you look good enough to eat, my little pet."

Needless to say Zach was rolling around on the floor laughing while clutching his bruised ribs as a very frustrated, and nearly purple from head to toe asari dressed in something that wouldn't be shown in public stormed out of his quarters without so much as a second thought that the rest of the crew might see her in her new outfit that practically screamed "Fuck Me!"

He got to his feet and quickly took a shower to wash all the crap off of him as he changed in a clean set of clothes, a pair of pants and a shirt. With that done and out of the way, he sat back down at his workbench after picking up the two articles of skimpy clothing laying on his floor, thinking about how he should hang them on his wall or return them to Bella, imagining the look on her face if he gave them back to her over breakfast at the Mess Deck with the rest of the crew present.

Zach stopped laughing once his omni-tool beeped as he glanced at the message display.

_Angel, I need you over here, please._

Just the message alone sent shivers of anticipation through him as he got to his feet and left his quarters before he walked across the corridor and entered Bella's personal quarters, turning around to secure the door behind him before he turned around to see a sight he only imagined in his dreams.

Bella was in her sexy outfit, currently pinned against what amounted to a naked asari dressed in a black one piece leotard that looked like she had been poured into it and was nearly bursting at the seams. He could also tell that the lights had been dimmed down marginally, several colored orbs sat around at random, throwing a multitude of colors around the room in a pleasing manner. Bella had a larger bed than he did, granted it was a real bed instead of a hammock, the bedspread was turned down and even from across the room he could tell they were top of the line silk sheets. A smell hung heavily in the air as he recognized it as what could only be as the musk of asari, he inhaled deeply and realized that it was horny asari if his nose wasn't lying to him, really horny.

If they had gotten that horny in that short of time, Zach couldn't help but look them both from head to toe slowly, noticing at once that a pair of hands were doing nasty things downstairs to the shorter asari, but the wet glistening trails running down the thighs of the taller asari told him that the feelings were not alone as he awkwardly scratched the back of his head, remembering exactly what Lazara had told him.

"What seems to be the problem?" Zach was surprised with himself that his voice didn't falter as he tried to appear surprised as Lazara laughed softly.

"Well it seems that my little pet here has a pretty flower," Lazara lifted a hand covered in juices as her tongue lapped at her fingers a few times, "that hasn't blossomed yet."

Bella let out a soft yelp when Lazara licked her ear as Zach, feeling hot under the collar, as well as gaining an instant erection worthy of cutting through the hull plating, almost to the point where it was painful.

"Really?" Zach looked into her eyes and saw the flicker of mischief as he walked forward, stopping just short of the embraced pair, watching the fingers slip in and out of Bella with ease as the shorter asari arched into the sensation.

"Oh yes, only I can't quite reach it," Lazara moaned huskily as she lowered her other hand to join the first in her tender ministrations, "a little look into my sweet pet's mind showed me how to retrieve that flower."

Bella let out a soft, needy whimper as Zach tilted his head, obviously deep in thought as he decided to play this little game with Lazara, getting a brief nod from the taller asari for approval while he slowly walked around the pair.

"How shall we retrieve this flower?" He asked as he laid his chin on Bella's opposite shoulder, licking her earlobe gently as Lazara crooned to her softly.

Zach snaked an arm around her midriff and pulled her from the clutches of Lazara carefully, grinning over the top of her head at the older asari as she dropped to her knees in front of Bella, earning a surprised gasp as Zach wrapped his arms around Bella in a comforting manner.

Lazara licked her way up each thigh, stopping every few seconds, looking up at Bella with big blue eyes that burned with passion before her hands pulled her legs apart until she was open to her bond sister crouched before her as Zach winked and got to work.

Another interesting feature about asari in general, was that they had a pressure point on the back of their skulls, when the flanged ends of their scalp crests were flared outward, away from their skulls, revealing a cluster of sensitive nerves that Zach found with his tongue. The reaction was instantaneous, the sensitive cluster was unfamiliar with such stimuli, the moan that Bella let out gave Lazara a moment of pause as she went back to her oral ministrations as Zach discovered how strong an asari in the throes of pending orgasm really was.

Another tidbit of trivia came from the back of his mind as he fought against the pain as the bones in his hand grated together, something about Ardat-Yakshi being much more sensitive due to the fact they had a much more developed nervous system, so he figured that Bella was feeling everything would be a lot more than a normal asari could feel. He brushed a simple kiss instead as he felt her ease her grip on his hand, deciding to reach down and grab the head of her lover currently going to town on her snatch. Not to be forgotten, Zach reached up with both hands, teasing her erect nipples with his thumbs, grazing the sensitive tips with the pad of each digit slowly.

Cupping the fullness of each breast, Zach leaned down to see the look Lazara was sending him as her tongue, sticking several inches out of her mouth, another asari trait, slowly slipped inside Bella. The whimper coming from the asari trapped between the two of them caused Lazara to lock eyes with him and wink at him as she brought up her fingers, coated and slick with pussy juice as Zach reached down and snared both of her wrists.

Bella struggled to hold her lover as Zach pulled her arms above her head, engaging a secret feature of the outfit, the cuffs of the sleeves forming a high tech pair of shackles that locked her wrists together as the decorative strap dangling from the ceiling adhered to the metallic strips in her outfit, effectively holding her in place with her arms above her head.

"Be still my pet," Lazara cooed as she got to her feet, running her hands up her stomach, chest and neck before she kissed as set of parted lips, "I have decided to give you what you want, a token from me to you in this."

At her nod, Zach stepped away from Bella as he slowly walked around to her front and reached for the belt on his waist as Lazara wrapped herself around behind Bella, reaching down and lifting the restrained asari off her feet. In this new position, with her legs spread wide and her arms above her head as the pleading look on her face with Lazara over her shoulder, crooning softly into her ear as Zach stopped fumbling with his belt and looked at her.

This was something he could never do, this went beyond what he felt for his teammate as he shook his head at the look Lazara was giving him as he stepped into Bella's body, fully clothed and painfully hard as he rested his forehead against her shoulder.

"To pluck a flower so harshly would end only in torment," Zach whispered into her ear while trading looks with the surprised Spectre supporting Bella in this position as he caressed her cheek, "anguish that the one who has her heart wouldn't take was offered."

With that, Zach turned and left, bestowing one kiss on Bella's lips as Lazara let her feet touch the ground and freed her arms.

"Remember that biotics can used for many things," he said to the both of them as he took a step back and nodded once at Lazara, "we have some work to do tomorrow, so I expect the two of you to be mobile by midday."

"Please…" Bella gasped as Lazara wrapped her arms around the smaller asari as she reached out with her hands, "stay….please Angel."

"I can't do that," Zach said as he took another step back, "I respect what the two of you have too much, and I think the you must find what you need in each other."

"Not what I expected from you," Lazara purred as her hands went down to tease Bella's aroused flesh in front of him, "you would deny your friend this honor?"

"In my mind, I would be tainting her honor as teammate, friend and shipmate to come between her and her bond sister," Zach bowed as he turned and head for the door, "I respect you, but can never see you beyond a squad member, I would much rather dance in a fire fight with you than between the sheets."

Zach left with a raging hard-on he knew would last for hours, no matter what he did or how cold he made his shower as he reached the door.

"Angel?" Zach turned around to see Bella smiling at him as she turned around to embrace her lover, "Thank you for making me see who I love."

Zach nodded as he walked out of her quarters as she practically pounced the asari Spectre onto her bed as he waited for the door to hiss shut before he walked back to his quarters, locked the door, enabled his omni-tool to find some material to help with his condition as he walked into the shower naked.

It was going to be a long night to work off the assorted frustrations he currently had as turned on the shower, barely above freezing temperature as he glanced over at the holovid displaying porn, unrelated to asari of any kind as he reached over and grabbed the shampoo.

This was going to be an interesting night.


	7. Mass Maddness Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven: Some Erratic Errands **

Zach sighed as he rolled over in his cocoon of soft blankets as he climbed out of his hammock and placed the pistol and knife on his workbench before getting dressed, ignoring the obvious discomfort of his genitals from all the masturbating he did in the shower last night to work it out of his system.

He wanted to see Bella as what she meant to him, someone who had his back in the middle of a battlefield instead of doing sordid things to him in the confines of her quarters, no he had too much respect for her just to use her for his own selfish needs. Granted, any male creature of any species would have killed to been in his situation, he was just kind of worried that the asari duo from the darkest corner of his imagination would be upset at him.

Jorthan grunted a greeting as he sat down, picking at his plate of varren steak as Zach grabbed whatever was being served as Zota arrived, his mandibles spread in what could only be a grin as the XO, another asari veteran with a thing for him with an equally large smile on her face. Zach rolled his eyes at the display of public affection between the two as he went back to eating his breakfast as Kelvin, along with his trio of quarians, came stumbling into the mess deck like a gang of nightwalkers.

"How are repairs coming?" Zach asked as Kelvin sat down with his meal vacuum sealed in the canister attached to the feeding tube port on the side of his helmet.

"Drive manifold is functional, power output increased by seventeen percent all across the board, main power core systems refurbished and all of the main shielding couplers have been recalibrated to increase the duration of protection by ten percent." Kelvin said as he laid his head on his arms and sighed deeply.

"Good boy," Jorthan growled as he reached over and patted the tired Quarian on top of his head, "maybe one day you can fight as well as you can work on broken things."

Rather than answer, Kelvin simply finished eating and walked in the direction of his quarters as the other quarians sat around consulting their omni-tools over something about the power converters located in the aft drive manifold as a familiar set of asari walked into the mess deck.

A series of whistles, catcalls, applause and cheers went up as Bella turned an instant shade of purple as Lazara laughed before towing the other asari across the mess deck and sat her down at their table, patting the side of her head gently.

"Stay right there my pet," Lazara said as she stood up, "I'll bring us some breakfast."

"Someone looks pleased with themselves," Jorthan rumbled as he leaned forward as Bella scowled at him, "so can you walk straight without discomfort?"

A resounding slap of flesh against metal filled the air, Jorthan barely blinked as Bella realized her blunder of having slapped the side of his face, striking the collar of his armor instead of his face as she cradled her hand.

Lazara swooped in, two trays heaping with food as she fussed over Bella's hand before she began feeding grapes into her mouth one by one as Zach checked his omni-tool for messages, finding the list of compiled parts Kelvin was going to need, as well as the amount of credits Zota had sent him to cover for the costs as he looked around the table.

"Should have hit him with biotics instead my pet," Lazara said as she fed food into the waiting mouth before putting a cherry between her own lips and delivered it into Bella's waiting mouth with a short kiss, "so you don't hurt yourself any more than you already have."

Bella blushed a wonderful color at this as she swatted her good hand at Lazara in a playful manner as Zach thought about who he should take with him on this spare parts run, Kelvin was in need of sleep instead of running across half the Citadel to every ship parts vendor because he was the one in charge of finishing the repairs to the ship once the parts got here, so he was out. One look at Bella engaged in a kiss that looked she was trying to survive on the oxygen in her lover's lungs told him that she was also unavailable for a parts run, Jorthan glared at him the second he looked in his direction, so neither Bella or Jorthan were available.

Most of the crew was either in the middle of a shift rotation, out on shore leave or going to sleep after spending the last shift taking the ship apart and putting it back together.

Zach decided to just go by himself, getting in full armor, minus the rebreather helmet, opting to wear a simple protective helmet that covered a good half of his face with a visor, taking his rifle, pistol, shotgun and some low yield explosive grenades as a just in case, as well as loading several programs onto his omni-tool that would help in an environment packed with innocent targets.

"I'll send you a message once I get each item on the list," Zach told Zota as he walked towards the airlock, "I'll have the vendor deliver it as high priority to our dock instead of dragging enough ship components to give someone a reason to give me trouble."

"Alright," Zota sighed as he glanced at his omni-tool, "got some business with some old friends, so if you need to contact me for anything, I'll keep in touch."

Zach nodded as he stepped through the airlock and headed for the nearest rapid transit terminal to call a cab, knowing that C-Sec would send a protective detail after him due to the fact a Spectre had ordered his legal status to be cleared, so they were working in part of making sure he stayed out of trouble or to arrest him the second he did anything wrong.

The cab dropped him off at the Lower Markets, the few places he went to either did have everything he needed or wanted to charge him twice as much for parts in worse condition than what Kelvin and his crew had pulled out of the _Blade _before he decided to try the Wards. Not that he was worried about the Wards, he spent most of his time off ship either in the middle of firefight or in places that made the Wards look like a place he wanted to raise a family there. Of course he made sure his back was covered, his hand never far from his weapon of choice for a situation like this, he thought that someone would avoid a man with his fingertips brushing the grip of a heavily modified shotgun that looked like it could take out a Krogan with one shot, which it could.

He was polite to various vendors, salesmen and passing people as he sent whatever parts back to the ship via delivery, sticking to items on the list because he wasn't going to use up funds on other stuff that Zota wasn't paying him for. Granted he stayed away from bars, strip clubs, prostitutes, shady looking characters and credit firms like a good little trooper, not giving anyone a reason to mess with a man dressed in heavy armor armed to the teeth unless they came looking for him.

After finishing a transaction with a turain for the main part, some part of the FTL drive coupler if he remembered exactly what it was, Zach took all of ten steps before someone brushed past him, hard enough to send a lesser man flying, but someone wearing gravity boots to simply sway on his feet as he turned to look at the batarian who had run into him.

"Watch where you are going filthy human," the four eyed creep snarled as Zach got a whiff of whatever was on his breath as the batarian jeered, "nothing but shit on my boots is what you are."

That hurt, Zach narrowed his eyes as he raised a hand, watching the batarian cock his head to the side and narrow his eyes as he watched his hand start to glow a light red as he reached out and clapped the batarian on the shoulder.

"Have a nice day you four eyed shit eating bastard." Zach said with a smile as he focused his energy into the palm of his hand as wiggled his toes in the proper sequence to lock down his gravity boots to the deck.

The batarian growled as he lifted his four fingered hand towards the pistol hanging off his hip, "Why you little shi-AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!"

Zach watched as the batarian suddenly flew across the courtyard, flying above the heads of the crowd before crashing into the side of a wall hard enough to render him unconscious as a pair of batarians looked at their friend laying in a heap and then back at Zach before going to see if their friend was alright.

Feeling much better, he left before the locals could send C-Sec after him, Zach made it all the way to Richard's Riches, another parts store as he walked in and started chatting up with the clerk about the parts he wanted when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Being casual about it, he looked around the store, pretending to tilt his head in the direction of several displays of parts, when he was really glancing around the store before he spotted what set him on edge.

Three krogans were waiting outside the store, cracking their knuckles and scaring off anyone else trying to enter the store as a turain entered the store after giving the krogans a brief command, but he was facing the wrong way and out of range of his helmet's audio receivers to let Zach know what he had said. Zach simply waited until he was finished with his business before he turned around to browse the selection of the shop while pulling his pistol off his belt. Once the turain stepped inside the shop, he noticed that the clerk was behind his counter and Zach had his back turned, but he didn't know several things about the man he was about to shoot in the back with a shotgun at point blank range.

For one, he thought that the human was unaware that he was in trouble and that he had turned off his shields when in truth, Zach had never turned them off. Another thing was that Zach had modified each weapon heavily, going beyond the typical ammo and standard modifications, he had installed micro-cameras on each weapon so if he ever needed to shoot around corners or something along those lines he could do with as long as he was wearing a visor with his special program installed.

Because the turain was focused on watching where Zach was looking, a honest rookie mistake when he should have watched his hands, he never saw that Zach had his pistol peeking around the other side of his torso, aimed right at his chest as he watched in the HUDS view screen as the turain leveled a nasty looking shotgun at his back and wracked it.

The roar was deafening and everything around him exploded from the blast, but all that remained was a turain looking down at a neat hole drilled through his chest before looking up at the armored human standing several feet away from the smoking crater in the wall, pistol drawn and crouched on his knee.

"Good shot." The turain groaned as he dropped to the floor with a thud, alerting the Krogan standing out in front, who noticed that their partner in crime was dead, so they did what any Krogan would do.

They promptly turned around and started blasting the store with whatever firepower they had, one had a shotgun and the other two were using assault rifles Zach noted as he fired several rounds from his pistol back at them, getting a few good hits in before they wised up and turned on their shields as one of the Krogan, the one with the cannon for a shotgun, glowed blue.

"Aw shit." Zach groaned as he grabbed his assault rifle and started firing at that particular Krogan as the counter he had dove behind was steadily disintegrating at an alarming rate before the first shockwave came hurtling into the store.

Rather than dive out of the way and find himself in the middle of a killzone, Zach simply raised a barrier and let the biotics wash over him before he stood up and blasted the biotic Krogan in the face with a long burst as the other two started to duck for cover.

A loud and powerful blast revealed the disgruntled clerk armed with a medium grenade launcher step out of the back room, shouting curses in drell as Zach wisely kept his head down and waited for the next shot, the one that caused the grenade launcher to overheat and no longer be in operation for half a minute, before he launched a sabotage mine at the Krogans, causing their weapons to become overheated and therefore useless.

It took two long bursts to kill each Krogan as Zach went over to check the clerk, who had been wounded in the fight.

"Bastards are part of the damn Blood Pack," the drell cursed as Zach applied a liberal amount of medical gel to the leg wound as the drell looked around his store, "you better get out of here before the rest of them show up."

"You sure?" Zach asked as he helped the drell to his feet.

"Absolutely, those Blood Pack goons have been trying to start a criminal racket in these parts and being SR means you are welcome to blow my place up any day of the week." The clerk nodded his head in the direction of the door as he slid the grenade launcher back out of sight.

Zach stepped out and made sure all four of them dead, snatching up the shotguns and rifles, looting a dozen grenades and a couple thousand credits as well before the sirens told him it was time to leave.

A half hour later, Zach was leaving another store, having pawned off the surplus of weapons he had gathered and bought the last item required on the list as he went back the Lower Markets to do a little shopping for himself, mostly to shop around for various weapon upgrades and things of that nature before something caught his eye.

Several batarians were yelling and jeering over something and even from the distance he was at, Zach knew it wasn't good as he walked closer to get a decent look. Nine of them were heavily armed and decked out in decent armor suits, his sensors picked up that they had multiple modifications to both shielding weapons and omni-tools as well, but three of them were dressed in what appeared to be casual suits, making it a dozen against what looked like two Quarians and a Human.

What really pissed him off was that he could easily see that each one of them wore a distinct collar, marking them as indentured servants, slaves in other words, and the beating he was witnessing ruined his perfectly crappy afternoon as he noticed the passing crowd paid absolutely no heed to what was going.

Locking down his armor so the shields powered up to full capacity, leaving a yellow tint around his body as he stormed across the street to where the batarians were assembled, fully intent on drawing blood.

"You stupid pieces of garbage! How could you not fix that simple piece of hardware before C-Sec arrived!" Zach was able to catch snatches of the one side conversations, mostly from the batarians as the three delivered kicks, slaps and punches to the three cowering figures on the ground while the rest of the bodyguard detail stood on and watched.

The deafening roar of a shotgun and the heavy whump of a pistol firing got their attention after he had blasted seven of the guards into the abyss before he lashed out, kicking another in the kneecap, grinning once he heard the howl of pain as the ruined joint gave out under the punishment. Granted his shotgun overheated after the fifth shot, so he used it to strike the other upside the head before he turned around and shoved his pistol between the inner set of eyes on the last batarian guard before he could pull his submachine gun free, wisely moving his hand away once all four of his eyes focused on the pistol shoved into his face.

"What the…" One of the suited batarians swore as he turned around to see most of his men either dead or incapacitated by a single human as his accomplices started reaching for weapons.

Zach pulled the trigger on his pistol, knowing that the tungsten armor-piercing round left the poor guard's head nothing more than pulp as he swung both weapons towards the three batarians, his shotgun finally completed the cool down as it let out an audible beep, the heat sink indicator changing from red to blue.

"Don't even think about it," he growled as he made a show of tightening his fingers on the triggers, "now we are going to enter a little business transaction."

Stunned silenced occurred for about five seconds before the batarian farthest on the left stuttered, "What kind of transaction?"

Zach let them see his teeth in a cruel looking grin as he swayed the shotgun back and forth, "The one where you do what I say or you end up like the rest of your friends."

"Your bluffing," the middle batarian huffed as his eyes glanced to his right, "you wouldn't kill unarmed citizens in cold bloo…"

Zach promptly turned and shot the batarian groaning the ground, a hand was reaching the shotgun on the ground before Zach killed with a shotgun blast to the head before he shoved his pistol under the chin of the batarian farthest on the right before he could pull out a pistol.

"Really?" Zach asked as he tilted his head to the side to look over at the other two, "You think I am bluffing?"

"What do you want?" The middle batarian growled as the other two lifted their hands up as the three slaves looked on in what could only be terror, well he had two visors and a pair of terrified eyes looking up at him.

"Excellent, now you are going to remove those collars on those," Zach glanced over and noticed the sex of each slave, "women, transfer ownership files to me and wire every credit you got before I start wondering how your heads will explode if I shove a grenade down your throat."

No one moved for two seconds before two of the batarians, the only ones without a pistol shoved into their chins as the collars on the quarians, let out beeps before they fell off as Zach turned to look at the final batarian as he arched an eyebrow before the batarian activated his omni-tool and completed the orders.

Once all three collars were on the ground, Zach motioned with the barrels of his weapons at the batarians as they wisely dropped whatever weapons they had to the ground and moved away.

The irony of the situation was that he had made the specific signal originally created by batarians and they knew exactly what he wanted they to do, he entertained the idea of shooting them in the back, but that would make him no better than them as he glanced at the three slaves now in his ownership.

"Grab the weapons and armor," he waited for half a second before he added, "grab their omni-tools too."

Without a word of complaint, they quickly grabbed everything, putting everything in a large travel case after dumping out sealed bricks of red sand, which put Zach in an even worse mood as he walked up and pistol whipped all three of them and dumped the drugs on their bodies.

With a single nod of his head, they followed him closely as they climbed into a public transport, Zach grabbed the case once he saw how gingerly they moved.

"It's alright," Zach said after he put his weapons away and pulled out a packet of medical gel and reached over to administer it to the Quarian sitting the farthest away from him, as she shied away from him, "I'm here to help."

None of them said a word as he administered the gel to the Quarian and pulled out several suit patches to fix the minor damage to her suit, all she need was one tiny puncture and she would be dead within minutes, knowing the other two occupants were watching him closely.

First thing he did was set the override code on his omni-tool to grant them official freedom and sent it to their omni-tools, along with a good portion of the credits he had gotten off the batarians as well, earning several gasps and surprised looks from them as he reached over and began applying medical gel to the other Quarian.

"Who are you?" The Human female asked as she triple checked her omni-tool as she applied her own medical gel to her growing bruises.

"Did you known that those men are connected to the Eclipse mercenary group?" The other Quarian spoke as her external speaker warbled a little bit.

"So?" Zach asked as he flashed them a smile, "I work for the Satan's Rejects and those guys were just pissing me off, so consider yourselves free of any contract."

"I'm Shanna," the Human smiled as she stuck out her hand, "I got roped into service for those four-eyed assholes a year ago, now I can go back home, so you can keep the credits, I don't want them."

"Are you sure?" Zach asked once his omni-tool beeped.

"Of course, I only needed enough to pay for a ticket home." Shanna smiled as she wished her friends good-bye before she got off at the next stop as Zach turned his attention to the Quarians.

"My name is unimportant," the healthier looking Quarian said as she sent half of the original amount of credits back to him as she stepped off as well, "I hope one day to repay the favor, thank you."

Zach turned to face the last Quarian still in the transport as she extended her three fingered hand in greeting, "Naomi, exile of the Migrant Fleet, child of none."

From the tone she used, Zach felt sorry for her as he took notice of the state of her suit, knowing that a Quarian without a ship or fleet was as good as dead in the eyes of their people, of course getting kicked out of the Fleet was only the result of a major offense, but even at first he knew she wasn't the kind of person to go out of her way and endanger someone. Even when her companions were in the middle of the beating, she had used her body to shield the other two as much as she could, which prompted Zach to run a scan over her as she worked her own omni-tool to administer medical gel.

He was shocked at the state of Naomi, nine broken bones and a minor ruptured organ, along with medium levels of foreign contaminates inside her suit from what looked like punctures, not to mention her medical immune boosters and supplements was near critical low levels. Her suit was in serious need of repair, a good patch job in several locations around her body and a new filter in her mask as he promptly scooped the hapless Quarian up in his arms and dragged the case back to the ship.

She let out a soft yelp before she winced in pain, no doubt the medical gel was barely cutting it in the amount of pain she was in as Zach entered the _Blade _and headed straight to the clean room.

Jorthan was near the stairs as Zach left the case near the airlock and watched as he carried the Quarian through the ship, "Picked up another stray huh?"

"Can it you overgrown gecko." Zach shot back as he heading for the med bay as Naomi fidgeted in his arms at the sight of the massive Krogan glowering in their general direction.

"Do you have a death wish human?" Naomi asked as they reached the med bay, sighing as Zach set her down on the operating table and punched in commands on the automated medical equipment.

"No, lay down and hold still while the scanner gets a complete read on you." Zach ordered as he set his helmet aside and waited for the scanner to begin.

"Taunting a Krogan is a certain death sentence," Naomi sighed as she turned her head in his direction, "it this thing programmed for Quarians?"

"Of course, now hold still," Zach commented as the scan was finished, "you'll be receiving an immune booster mixed with antibiotics cocktail in a few seconds, then the nanites will be administered to repair your internal injuries, so you'll be unconscious for a couple hours."

"Nanites? Those are expensive to waste on injuries," Naomi protested as she struggled to sit up, "I'll be fine."

"Ten minutes ago you were getting the crap beaten out of you by a bunch of batarians and you can barely move without pain, so you either stay on that table or I will give you a sedative myself." Zach threatened as she simply slumped back down in defeat.

Once the automated injections were over, Zach stepped back as the automated arms went to work on the drugged Quarian after the self-sealing tube closed and commenced to run a full decontamination cycle, mostly working on the damaged areas of her suit as Zach waited another few minutes before he went off to find Zota.

He was shocked when he ran into Lazara and Bella outside the med bay, both of them were tangled with each other and didn't notice him as he slipped past them and went up to the cargo bay to see if he could find Zota.

Jorthan greeted him at the top of the stairs, "You got a real big quad to relate me to a human lizard, what had you in such a hurry, discover six eyes and tentacles under that visor?"

"No you big lug," Zach sighed as he slumped against the wall, "tore apart a group of batarians that were beating a couple slaves, I may have killed most of them in order to free them and she was too weak to even walk, so I brought her back and tucked her in the med bay for now."

"How bad?" If anyone didn't know Jorthan well enough to know the look in his eyes wasn't blind rage, but mere concern as the earlier banter between them was all but forgotten as Zach forwarded the medical scan information to Jorthan's omni-tool.

"I hope that you killed the bastard who did that," Jorthan rumbled as he glanced at her extensive list of injuries, "if you didn't, then I'll go do it myself."

"Relax, all of the guards are dead and they were covered in several bricks of red sand when I left," Zach motioned upstairs with his free hand, "got a case of weapons and omni-tools off them for you to inventory or scrap."

His omni-tool beeped as he glanced at the message, "I got to head back down to the med bay, will you pass Zota a message that we picked up another Quarian for me?"

Jorthan rumbled a deep grunt as he nodded his massive head, already typing away on the holographic interface of his omni-tool as Zach went back to the med bay.

Lazara and Bella were crowded around the tube containing Naomi, Zach simply waited until he was done changing the command console to run a full on monitoring system diagnostics before he turned around to face the two slightly miffed Asari, each one powerful in their own right as he sat down and removed his helmet.

"Who is this?" Bella asked as she reviewed the medical scanner history relating to the Quarian now resting peacefully inside the tube with the drugs coursing through her system as the nanites did their job.

"I ran into a couple batarians beating some slaves in the Wards," Zach shrugged as he loaded several suit patches into the supply drawer so the automated arms could apply more suit patches, "got them to release her and the others, brought her back here for medical treatment because she could barely stand."

"Who were they?" Lazara asked as she activated her omni-tool as Zach shook his head.

"Bunch of Eclipse mercs from what she told me," Zach answered as he checked his omni-tool to check something, "should just make her a new suit because we don't have enough patches on the ship to get it back up to a hundred percent if she wants to keep it."

"Poor thing," Bella sighed as she patted the glass of the tube, "good thing you came along when you did, she wouldn't have lasted much longer."

"Yeah, the other two were alright, they got on the first transport off the Citadel," Zach pointed at the sleeping Quarian, "she just about passed out, guess she doesn't have much now that she is an exile."

"It is rare for the Migrant Fleet to exile one of their own," Lazara turned back to the medical tube thoughtfully as Bella sought to comfort the older Asari, "she'd of had to return to the Fleet for them to exile her, so that could only mean one of two things."

"What would make her own people turn her aside?" Zach asked as he patted Bella on the shoulder, noticing that both of them were in, for better words, night gowns as Lazara looked up.

"Either she deliberately revealed the location of her Fleet to an enemy, which they would have killed her for such an offense, or else she did something taboo with the Geth."

"Damn, that is a little harsh don't you think?" Zach asked as he noticed the bottles sitting on the counter before he glanced at the Asari standing in the med bay.

"Were you two planning on going to war with that much medical gel and is that, dare I say, body lubricant?" Zach choked back the laugh when two sets of glowing eyes turned in his direction.

"Be quiet."


	8. Mass Maddness Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight: Normalcy Overrated **

Zota was mildly surprised when he stumbled back to the _Blade _drunk off his ass with an Asari under one arm and a female Turain under the other to find another Quarian holed up in his medical bay, but the look he received from a majority of his ground team and a Spectre told him not to question it as he went to his own private quarters with his guests in tow.

Zach on the other hand got out of his armor and started working on his new project, which involved making a new environmental suit from scratch for a Quarian with all the supplies he had on hand as Bella and Lazara went back to their quarters with some supplies taken from the med bay, smiles plastered on their faces.

Shaking the distracting thoughts from his head, Zach sat down with schematics, body measurements and scans taken from the medical scanner as well as from his own omni-tool to make Naomi a suit worthy to keep a body contained for life.

The dire aspect of being a Quarian stranded somewhere with help from their Fleet was akin to a Krogan not having a secondary nervous system, without it they couldn't survive and to be exiled meant that they were completely cut off. If it was a serious enough offense, theft, murder, giving out the location of the Migrant Fleet to anyone or transporting illegal goods to the Fleet for personal gain, that would result in a public execution, so whatever wrong Naomi committed to be kicked out for good barely rated a sidebar to what crimes Zach had committed in his own past. Hearing of a Quarian being exiled was rare, but it did happen, more often than not, so he thought about trying to find what he could on why Naomi had been exiled, but he decided that was for her to tell later.

Picking the right materials for the suit was an easy choice, Zach figured if he had to be sealed inside of a suit for the rest of his life while traveling all over the known galaxy, he would want something that would stand up to the wear and tear. Granted he was more worried about protection from small arms fire, shrapnel and sharp things puncturing his own suit than he would about comfort, but then again this was a Quarian he had to worry about keeping alive, so he built everything from the ground up. First he started on the actual guts of the suit, meaning that he had a power unit, internal processors and software tech to work on putting together so everything could be hard wired.

Most of it went into the section of the suit that would become the backplate, installing it took time as he made sure none of the circuits crossed and everything was wired properly, meaning that he more than enough room to put the temperature regulator, nerve stimulators, self-administrating medical interface, immunization processor, central monitoring system, medical gel dispensers, climate control, repair protocols, damage assessment computers, mechanical augmentation sensors, sealing system, waste processing systems, antibiotic generator and a couple extra knick-knacks he figured a Quarian could use in a suit, such as a neat little feature to scratch her face without having to take her visor off, besides, Zach knew for a fact how agonizing it was to not be able to get that itch on his nose. He cringed at the thought of suit rash, so he ignored the regular suit lining materials and went for comfort materials that cost more than his own suit of armor, but damned if he was going to sentence someone to being trapped inside a suit and having to suffer the amount of chaffing he expected to come from everyday use.

Starting from the feet up, Zach lined the inside with a form fitting gelatin coating that was rated to be the most comfortable on this side of occupied space, though most people didn't bother with using it because they rarely, if ever, had to survive inside of a suit for days on end. It had many special properties, but he figured that comfort was a high point on his end of engineering as he gave the feet, well the toes especially, armor plating to protect her feet, as well as gravity boots.

From there he had installed the gel inside a series of layers that would make up the entire suit, the first layer was a material similar to what Naomi had been originally wearing, on the outside of that was a layer of material similar to chainmail worn by knights in ancient times, but with the technology of the current century. The material was used in most hard suits, granted it was actually three layers of material sandwiching two layers of microscopic titanium rings over the top of a larger layer of scale like plates that were interwoven into ballistic material.

Making it damn hard to puncture and able to withstand some degree of direct small arms fire before failing, Zach had used the same materials on his own armor and he never regretted the credits he spent on it, on the outside of that layer was what amounted to a dense material built to absorb penetrating objects and stop them before they managed to get through, effectively wrapping the Quarian in several layers of protective materials, which translated into being a real bitch to put together after the components came out of the machinery cutting and shaping everything to size as he had the fun job of putting it together.

Built into each limb was an independent medical gel applicator, as well as a system to inject immune boosters as well as antibiotics, in the event the primary system was hit or destroyed. He also installed several armor plates into the outer layer of the suit over the large portions of the body, legs, thighs, waist, chest, back, arms, shoulders and neck area to add the amount of protection she would have.

Having built a suit similar for Kelvin years ago, Zach was familiar how touchy he had been when he helped him put it together, going off of memory where to put all of the circuit nodes, power flux capacitors and assorted hard points to attach additional armor and equipment later on. The set of power cores he installed in the back of her suit were regular ones, one would supply more than enough power, but Zach liked the idea of having a redundant back-up system already installed, as well as making several connection ports in the suit itself to hook up other pieces of equipment later on. To top everything off, he added several features to the visor, giving it a HUD on par with his own, adding a few new toys as well before he finished the whole thing with a little customization of his own, using a holo of her headdress to put the detailed work on the chest and shoulder plates of her suit.

He kept the suit in simple black and dark green with the patterns adding to the whole thing as he conducted a pressure and seal test six times to make sure everything was functional without endangering the occupant of the suit, hopefully the extra weight would be negated by the cybernetic suit implants to augment her strength and reflexes by thirty percent. Any armor and shielding she added later on would have to be customized to fit around her suit, but Zach figured that if she stayed on with them, a wise ship captain once said that you could never have enough Quarians onboard, she might need customized armor one day.

Granted the whole project, start to finish, lasted sixteen consecutive hours before he was satisfied with his work as he broke it down to five parts and took it down to the med bay to see how his patient was doing.

She was still asleep, no doubt the nanites were hard at work repairing the damage to her body as he slid two canisters of dextro based food into the access port for her to later eat when she woke up finally as he set the suit into a nearby box as he cleaned up the med bay.

Once everything was good to go, he sent Naomi a message with his omni-tool in the event she woke up and needed help before he went back to his own quarters and climbed into his hammock with the intent to pass out and sleep a solid ten hours when his com terminal beeped loudly for his attention as he decided that whatever it was could wait until morning as he dimmed the lights and fell asleep.

Naturally he woke to the sound of the alarm on his omni-tool going off as he rolled out of his hammock, realizing that he had only been asleep five hours as he blinked away the sleepiness as he focused on the message.

_I have this number to notify if I wake up, where am I?_

It took a moment before the content of the message sunk in as he hammered out a quick response and got dressed, setting his customary knife and pistol aside before he headed in the direction of the med bay, passing Kelvin and his bunch of engineers on their way out to repair the main flight control system before he stepped inside the med bay.

Naomi was awake and moving around inside the tube as she watched him walk closer and activate the com unit built into the tube.

"How are you doing?" Zach asked as he stepped back to check the monitor displaying vitals, heart rate, blood pressure and general information.

"Confused, how did I wind up here?" Naomi asked as she lowered her hands and looked around.

"Guess you were pretty out of it when you got here, don't worry we haven't left the Citadel if that is what you were asking," Zach noted that the nanites had done their job, repairing her damaged organs and bones, "got you patched up and a replacement suit already made."

"Can't believe you dragged me all the way back to your ship and injected me with nanites, would've been cheaper if you just heal naturally and what is that about a new suit? I don't need your charity and I am fine with the one I have thank you." Zach knew she probably had a scowl on her face as she addressed him with her arms crossed over her chest, if she had been standing on her own two feet he would have expected her to be tapping her foot.

"No offense Naomi, you were in bad shape when you got here and that suit is more patches than original suit," Zach answered as he sat down in a chair and crossed his arms, "figured that you want a job on ship instead of running around the Citadel and if you're going to work with us, then you'll need a decent suit."

"What makes you think I'll agree?" Naomi sounded like she wanted to be difficult as Zach rolled his eyes and laughed.

"Exiled from your Fleet, down to your last credit, a suit that wouldn't last a week with more repairs, not to forget you are as welcome as a batarian raiding party no matter where you go," Zach glanced over at her as he tilted his head, "should I continue?"

"Why would I stay?" Naomi asked after a minute of silence, looking up as she rolled over onto her side and propped herself up on elbow.

"For one, free medical care, a suit that I spent a lot of time building custom made for you, fellow Quarians on Pilgrimage to hang out with, an Asari Spectre as your boss and you are on the Satan's Rejects ship after all." Zach held his hands up to let her contemplate her choice.

"A suit you made huh?" Naomi asked as she looked around the tube, "Just how am I going to put it on?"

"We have a clean room here onboard," Zach replied as he got up and released the locks to open the tube, "grab your breakfast and we'll get going."

The trip to the clean room, which was currently unoccupied due to the fact Kelvin and his minions had started on repairs around the ship after they had their rest period, though the rest of the ship was quiet as well as he escorted Naomi down to the clean room.

"I'd recommend using the shower while you can after the decontamination cycle kicks in, it runs three times before the all clear is given," Zach said as he handed her the box containing her new suit at the door leading into the clean room, "I'll be upstairs in the mess hall making breakfast, come find me when you are done and we'll get to work on finding you a place to shack up in."

Once she walked in, Zach went upstairs and scrounged up breakfast for himself as he waited an hour before he heard the loud clunking of a heavy suit coming up the stairs before she stepped into view.

It looked perfect as Naomi walked across the mess deck with a few alterations done to it already, she had taken the cloth sash from her old suit and installed it onto the new, as well as her old omni-tool already installed on her left forearm as she set the box containing her old suit down on the table next to him as she sat down.

"First time I ever say that a human can make a halfway decent suit," Naomi sounded much more clear compared to her older speaker as she moved her left arm up so she could access her omni-tool, "waiting for preliminary synching from the suit, but I must say, this is heaven."

"How is old is that omni?" Zach asked as she looked up, the tinted visor wrapped more around her face, but he knew her eyes were dead center as he took a drink of water.

Her shoulders slumped as she typed away on the holographic interface, "Couple years, been upgraded quite a bit, why?"

"Need to get you a new one," Zach watched as her fingers froze as her head snapped in his direction, "figured if we had an engineer running around on this ship, you'd need decent equipment first."

"What is it with you and Quarians?" Naomi asked as she lowered her hands to the table as Zach looked up with an eyebrow arched.

"You will soon discover that this particular human has an adept skill in making friends with just about any race, regardless of past history," Naomi turned around to watch as Lazara and Bella saunter into the mess hall as Zach shook his head and kept eating, "he also bears no ill will to anyone, unless they piss him off first, and then they will discover what the wrath of a human truly means."

Naomi kept quiet as Bella reached over and touched her on the shoulder as she walked around the Quarian with the intent to examine her new suit, "Nice work, how long have you been working on this?"

"Ever since she came onboard." Zach answered around a mouthful of powdered eggs.

"Heard you had to kill a couple mercs in order to get her free," Lazara asked as Bella walked over to grab breakfast for the two of them, "got the report from C-Sec last night, also an incident involving the Blood Pack as well."

"Been after me ever since I crashed their prized flagship into an asteroid a couple years ago, they have a shoot to kill order out on me all over the place," Zach shrugged as he shrugged, "guess that means I won't be wandering around on the Citadel anymore until we leave."

"I even saw the footage of your fight with those batarian Eclipse mercs as well," Lazara's voice lowered an octave as she leaned forward to stab her finger into the tabletop twice, "maybe you shouldn't travel without a heavy guard from now on, that or at least take a teammate with you."

"I'll think about it," Zach looked over at Naomi, who was trying to appear invisible in front of the Asari, "I take it you are interested in the newest crew member?"

"I knew this had to be your work," Lazara extended a hand as she shook hands with Naomi, "is she an addition to your combat team as well?"

The sputtering sound from Naomi made Zach smirk as Lazara turned to face him, "Part of the engineering team perhaps?"

"That was the plan anyway," Zach picked up his tray as he stood up, "Zota has to agree to it, but I don't think he will get too bent out of shape over it to have another hotshot engineer running around."

Bella returned as she wrapped an arm around Lazara's shoulders and hugged her close, those two were lost in the moment as Zach beckoned Naomi to follow him as they left the mess hall and headed to the cargo bay where the shuttle was stored.

"When did you mount cannons on a drop ship?" Naomi asked as Zach went over to the spare equipment locker that stored extra omni-tools as he pulled out a Savant Mk VII and tossed to her as he grabbed a tool kit.

Naomi was already busy integrating her old omni-tool with her old one as he gave her a place to sit down in order to wait for Zota to crawl out of bed and see his lady friends off as he got to work pampering his shuttle weaponry, mostly to wait for Zota to show up and to kill time.

An hour later, a bedraggled Asari with her equally tired Turain friend stumbled into the cargo bay as Zota, in all his drunken glory, staggered them to the hatch and waved them off before he turned around and slid to the floor.

"Getting too old for this shit," Zota growled as he closed his eyes, "I hear someone found another engineer?"

Zach left the two of them alone to work up a contract as he went back to his quarters to grab some much needed sleep before he had to go run around the Citadel answering questions to C-Sec about the incident he had caused in one day, all he knew was that working with a Spectre had benefits.

Seven hours later, he was dressed in full armor, full weapons and he brought his assault rifle/grenade launcher prototype along just in case and riding in an elevator with the rest of his ground team, Zota, Lazara and a C-Sec rep to act at their tour guide to the Presidium. All he knew was that the ship wide klaxon alarm rang for a full minute as he got suited up and to the cargo bay in under three minutes to find everyone else on their way or already there. After some general bitching, Zota informed them that they were to attend a debriefing with Lazara to explain the current situation, warning bells were going off in his head as they stepped out of the elevator.

"The Councilors are waiting for you." The C-Sec motioned for them to step through the door as the group went through, Lazara motioning for them to stay in the general waiting area as she went on ahead.

"I should have worn my ceremonial armor to show these weak pups what a real Krogan looks like," Jorthan huffed as he leaned against a nearby pillar with his arms crossed over his chest, "wonder what our punishment will be?"

"Punishment?" Kelvin asked meekly as he twiddled his fingers nervously as he looked around.

"Relax, he is just pulling your leg Kelvin," Zota grumbled as he patted the Quarian on the shoulder in a comforting manner, "this is going to be some kind of trial weather we can be trusted or not to keep any details to ourselves."

"Like anyone would be dumb enough to walk around talking about how they took down a batarian gang without an army behind them," Zach replied as he noticed several snipers hidden in the alcoves above them, no doubt to make sure they didn't do anything suspicious, "it isn't public knowledge that we bloodied their nose, so they won't know it was us."

"Granted, they might be able to figure it out eventually," Bella said as she sat down at a bench and removed her helmet, keeping her face turned away from the watching snipers, "I hope we don't wind up being detained to our original planets of origin, that would be problematic."

"Try and find a prison to hold me." Jorthan growled as Zota sighed.

"No one is going to prison, we saved a Spectre, her crew and helped her complete her mission," Zota swatted the skulking Krogan on the arm to get his attention, "so have a little faith that we won't be facing a death squad somewhere, because if they wanted us dead, we wouldn't be breathing."

Zach raised an eyebrow as he went over to another bench and sat down, knowing that he had no less than half a dozen snipers zeroed in on him as he pulled out a knife and started sharpening it to calm his nerves while the others sat down and talked among themselves quietly to pass the time.

An hour later, Lazara reappeared and walked up to Bella, who was the first to jump to her feet and rushed to the Spectre to greet her with a hug as the others crowded around the pair.

"I have good news," she said after giving Bella a brief kiss, "the Council has agreed to pardon all past crimes and send adequate material compensation for each one of you, as well as a government issued bonus to each member of your current standing crew for the services you rendered in my investigation."

"What a relief." Jorthan grumbled as he pushed himself off the pillar.

Lazara smiled as she circled her arms the waist of Bella and pulled her closer, "Yes and I was told to discuss later opportunities with you later after Angel had a chance to speak with the Councilors alone."

Zach snapped his head in her direction as he felt a cold sweat roll down his back, "I have to what?"

Lazara laughed at his tone, "They just want to talk to you, well the Human ambassador especially wanted to have an audience with you, something about making a deal."

"Great, I can hardly wait." Zach sighed as he took a deep breath to calm himself as he made sure everything was where it was supposed to be as he stepped in the direction of the door Lazara had come out of at her gentle urging.

He took a flight of stairs up to another hallway, passing what he guessed to be three security drones, twenty snipers and a pair of Turain guards before he stepped into the Council Chambers itself.

Rather than look around sightseeing like a fool, he simply walked to the end of the platform where three holographic figures and one human waited for him.

"Zachary Gerald Tyson, alias known as Angel of the Satan's Rejects," a booming voice over the speaker system as a giant holographic display of his face, one taken yesterday if he did say so himself, "origins unknown until documented arrival at Earth at age seven, adopted into a family at age nine, discovered latent mutant abilities at age twelve, ran away from home at age seventeen when approached by personal interest group, self-interest unknown until reports of merc activity one year later, classification known as Level Seven Class Mutant."

Zach didn't say a word as the display showed pictures of his past life, reports from various sources on incidents he had been involved, a majority of them Alliance After-Action Reports, witness statements in the thousands of his deeds, verified intelligence reports from every race, including Quarian and Krogan character statements as the Human Ambassador stepped forward until he reached his own private terminal.

"Subject has partaken in an estimated two hundred transactions involving slavers, resulting in a high success rate with a team of fellow mercenaries," Zach rolled his eyes as the speaker made it sound like he sat down and had tea with them and haggled a deal over how much to pay for the innocent people, when he should have mentioned he just killed them, "behavior indicates a past stemmed from being a slave himself, creating the vigilante need to find and eradicate, suspect mentality appears to be stable enough for social interaction, battlefield reports indicate a thoughtful individual with unrelenting tact and good judgment, a perfect defacto solider in other words."

At this he didn't know whether to be offended or amused with the psych profile they had made on him and nearly turned on heel when a pair of Alliance Admirals walked in, something smelled funky as he stood his ground and merely waited for the verdict to be passed.

"It is with great recommendation that Zachary Tyson be admitted into the team Spectre Lazara is creating to act as a joint species operations team to evaluate potential human candidates for possible Spectres in the near future." It took all of his willpower to not react in an outward sign of shock as he turned to look at the Human Ambassador to make sure it wasn't some kind of sick joke as each Admiral stepped up behind him and waited.

"We shall see conduct reports and make a decision once sufficient data has been collected," the Asari Councilor spoke as she nodded her head in his direction, "for now he shall remain under Spectre control to operate within the assigned mission parameters, that is all."

Once all three holographic displays winked out of existence, Zach turned to look at the Admirals and then back at the Human Ambassador for confirmation that this wasn't a ruse as the Admiral on his left stuck out his hand.

"This is a great honor son," his deep baritone voice echoed as he pumped his armored hand twice, "we'll be assigning a liaison officer to work with you, as well funding you the latest equipment we have to offer to aid you in your missions."

"Thanks," Zach answered as he tilted his head in thought before turning to the second Admiral, "you were the one who sent that black ops team after me all those years ago."

Admiral Hackett sighed deeply as he noticed Zach was inching his hand towards the pistol on his hip, "We had reports you were involved with Cerberus and we decided to intervene before the scheduled pickup time, but it wasn't until later that we discovered it was all forged to make it look like you were involved, something we didn't realize until it was too late."

Zach depolarized his visor as he gave the admiral a look, crossing his arms over his chest, "Somehow I seriously doubt that."

"When you started saving multiple races from slavers, it went against everything Cerberus stood for, so we reevaluated your file," Admiral Hackett said as he lowered his offered hand, "all damages have been declared as operational losses so you don't owe the Alliance a thing."

With a shrug Zach turned to the second admiral, "You seem familiar."

"Admiral Chester Roscoe, Alliance Sixth Fleet Commander, I'm the one providing you with a ship for this little dog and pony show and I am not honestly happy about it, but the higher ups declared it was necessary," Zach was surprised when the Admiral promptly crossed his arms and regarded him with a thinly veiled look of contempt, "so the possible future of Human Spectre candidacy lies in the hands of mutant."

A sudden flare of energy had both men backpedaling as Zach smirked, noticing that the snipers had moved into action, "What's the matter, afraid that I don't answer to you makes you uneasy?"

"Easy Tyson," the Human Ambassador, Udina, had appeared out of nowhere as he stepped into the circle, "you answer directly to me and I am giving you a bit of leash to do what you want for now, but when you screw it up and screw it up you shall, I will be having that least cut short."

"Something tells me that you don't like the idea of having me here," Zach smirked as he laughed, "I can see that none of you like this idea and would have revoked the notion if it wasn't for someone else overriding your authority."

Strained silence greeted him as he uncrossed his arms, "In order to make this work, I'll be sending reports back to you three gentlemen in triplicate, an AAR if you will, I will do the occasional side job for you as throwing you a bone and I'll follow orders within my power to the best extent that I can."

"Don't be cute kid," Admiral Roscoe scoffed as he jerked a thumb in the direction of the silent displays, "They want to watch us jump through hoops and do what they want us to do, if we had our way, we'd be sending worthy of this position and instead we got you."

"Leaves a bitter taste doesn't it?" Zach asked as he glanced at his omni-tool and then back at them.

"Without further ado gentlemen," Udina said as he pulled out a datapad and handed it to him, "we will stand behind you and provide whatever assistance we can, if you have any questions, contact information is provided, now if you gentlemen excuse me, I have work to attend to."

Admiral Hackett put his hand on his shoulder, earning a look from Zach before he removed his hand and waved him off to the side as Admiral Roscoe gave him another leering look before he turned to the side and simply left with the Ambassador.

"We are giving you a Gladiator class ship as a gift to present to Spectre Lazara, complete with crew and a standing Marine detachment to protect the ship and provide mission critical backup if required, we were going to send this along with anyone considered for candidacy and we took the liberty of finding a captain worthy of piloting the ship, but that is for later." Admiral Hackett replied as he took his cue to leave from a flashing omni-tool.

Zach took a minute to collect himself before he headed back to the others, ignoring the questions as he consulted with Lazara over the details of the new ship.

Zota surprised everyone by declaring that he was stepping down to retire anyway, he would be taking his ship with him back to his home after he informed the crew, having already heard about what was coming.

His exact words were, "I'm getting too old to wander around the galaxy looking for people to kill me anyway, that is best left to the young."

Jorthan gave him a good ribbing over that as everyone went back to the _Blade _to pack everything up and take it too the new ship, which wouldn't be arriving at the Citadel until the day after tomorrow as Lazara revealed her plans for later.

"I plan on taking on anyone willing to join, there will a benefit package for anyone staying on, but I will be conducting battlefield prowess, marksmanship, technical capabilities, reactions to situations, possible biotic abilities and other useful skills in order to make my recommendation," Lazara smirked as she pulled a handful of soft Asari ass closer and pecked Bella on the lips, "tomorrow morning."


	9. Mass Maddness Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine: Auditions **

Zach discovered exactly how much stuff he really owned when he was busy loading the contents of his room into crates, making a discard pile next to his keep pile and he spent the better part of four hours getting everything sorted and taken to the shuttle, which, according to Zota, was his. All of the spare weapons, parts, mods, omni-tools, biotic amps, armor suits, shield couplers, tools, assorted knick knacks, schematics, equipment and various components were all accounted for.

Needless to say that he had six crates of gear, two of personal items and a single box of keepsakes that were going with him as everything else was stored in the cargo bay so they could get sold at a later date as he loaded all of his stuff into the shuttle, making sure they were properly labeled before he ran into Naomi down in the mess hall.

"How is the suit treating you?" Zach was surprised when she jumped at the sound of his voice as she turned around to face him.

"I take back every mean thing I've ever said about human engineering," she flexed her arms to show off her moments, "if every Quarian had a suit like this we wouldn't have such a high fatality rate in a fight."

"You're staying on?" Zach asked as she nodded her head.

"If I can prove that I helped a Spectre complete her missions, pick up enough useful items and let the galaxy know how Quarians stand, I might be accepted back into the Fleet." Naomi rubbed her hands together.

"Well if you're going to join up, then you'll need some decent firepower," Zach pointed at the apparent lack of weapons she had as he waved for her to follow him, "come on, I got plenty of spares for you to choose from."

It took two hours, a lot of threatening and general complaints to get Naomi to walk away with an entire crate of equipment from Zach's private collection, apparently giving away free stuff for Quarian to keep for herself was unheard of and for him to practically force her to take it was strange in her eyes.

When he found out she owned exactly one suit and the suit he built her, he basically kitted her out with everything she would ever need, starting with two Claymore 221 Mk VII shotguns, a pair of Striker Mk IV pistols, a single Locust Mk V submachine gun, a Lancer Mk VI assault rifle, a Mantis Mk IV sniper rifle, a Retro Mk II grenade launcher and twenty grenades. He also gave her plenty of ammo mods, weapon platform improvement mods, optic software for her HUD, upgrades, interface units and grenade mods to match, but he was far from finished.

He also gave her two spare Kessler Mk III omni-tools, ten packets of medical gel, several light mounts, targeting laser systems, ten vials of combat stimulants, forty vials of immune boosters, six combat sensors, four range finders and several kilos of blasting explosives at well. On top of that he gave her a shield coupler he had already modified for her new suit with several shield interface options, along with a handful of medical interface units that could be hardwired into her suit directly, including additional armor plating she could install onto her suit before he threw in roughly fifty spare patches for emergency field repairs.

Top everything off, making it the final insult in her eyes, he gave her three datapads worth of engineering manuals, ship blueprints and medical information, including a complete medical dispenser that could crank out six vials of antibiotics an hour and take up no more space than his toolbox.

It all fit in one crate that he labeled with her name, helping her install the shield coupler on her suit in seconds, leaving a shotgun, the SMG and pistol, along with five grenades and a few medical gel packets on her person and placed it on the shuttle next to a box containing her original suit. He watched as she patted the lid of the crate with her name, knowing she was adjusting to the fact that everything in that crate was hers, as he helped Kelvin load his crates onboard as well, having only four and most of it was tools and personal items.

Jorthan had six crates, most of them contained weapons and Krogan grade alcohol as a majority of the ship arsenal was either loaded up separately or left behind for Zota to deal with, Bella and Lazara bringing three crates from her quarters, the contents of one crate earning a rumbling laugh from Jorthan as a biotic powered punch shut him up in a hurry before they went back to helping the rest of the crew leaving move whatever they had onto the shuttle as well.

It was a damn good thing that he didn't need the shuttle to transport everyone and their stuff, or else he would have been in trouble, but it turned out only three other people were coming along with them, two Asari engineers with extensive commando training and an old Turain with an penchant for flying drop ships into hot zones, Zach was glad that Turbo was coming along or else he would never be able to find a decent pilot with the same amount of crazy and skill to pull off half the stunts he had.

Zota said he was going to taking the Quarians back to the Fleet as his last gig before he retired, each one of them had Pilgrimage gifts worthy of taking back, along with a few extras thrown in by the rest of the crew as Kelvin combined his credits to purchase a Kowloon freighter, brand new and stuffed to the gills with all kinds of cargo to have the other Quarians return to the Migrant Fleet as well. When Zach asked about it, Kelvin said it was a token from Naomi, which she had no idea about, and that if he was going to spend money, why couldn't he spend it on the good stuff?

With repairs completed, the _Blade _was the site of a final going away party as the members of the crew leaving celebrated with the crew still staying on or retiring, Zota splurged on several cases of dextro ale for everyone, sans Zach, to enjoy as the Quarian engineering team got hilariously drunk.

Before he left that morning, Zach had the panels on his door removed and stowed in the shuttle, smiling when he saw that the others had done the same before he went to find Lazara.

She wasn't far from Bella, well in fact it could be said she knew exactly where the smaller Asari was located after Zach walked in to see the Spectre lounging on the bed with the covers drawn up to her chin and a distinct shape moving underneath the sheet.

With burning ears and scarlet cheeks, Zach turned around and left with directions on where to take the rest of the ground team after storing the shuttle at docking bay 620.

Everyone else took a public transit shuttle to the location of Lazara's meeting, turned out it was a C-Sec firing range, cleared out and reserved solely for them after Zach parked the shuttle at the appointed docking bay and caught a transit shuttle with four C-Sec guards as an escort, a mandatory requirement in his case he was to ever wander around on the Citadel alone ever again.

Once Lazara arrived with a grinning Bella in tow, she stepped to the front of the group, which not only included the team from the _Blade _but anyone else Lazara had passed the invitation to audition for the team.

"Welcome, now I want everyone here to understand that you will not be discriminated against by race or past deeds," this seemed to be directed towards Zach and his group, "this is a simple evaluation of your skills that I am interested in knowing."

Lazara's attitude changed from lovely-dovey to downright harsh as she displayed what a real Spectre was expected to look like as she walked back and forth, "I will be testing each and every one of you myself in several categories, to see if you have what it takes and to later assign you into squads."

It was pretty straight forward, it would start out with firearms, each weapon class being tested on five targets with three different relays. The first relay would be regular shooting static targets, then it would be on silhouettes targets partially behind cover and then it would be on moving targets with random obstacles thrown in to make it harder. Scoring would be measured through time on a few of them, but the overall point was to put a certain number of rounds on target, a miss would count towards the overall score, then a tally from the total rounds fired would be deducted into points after the hit/miss ratio was made.

Pistols would start out at twenty-five meters for the first three, then it would move out to fifty and then finally seventy-five at the third try of all three tests, during that time Lazara made it known she would giving orders to transition from prone, kneeling, standing, propped, off hand and even hanging upside down, a look towards Zach told him where she had gotten that from.

Submachine guns would start out at twenty-five meters and then move out the same as pistol with each completion, time would be critical in this one as Zach mentally patted himself on the back for having installed modified heat sinks and dampening materials into his own.

Shotguns was different, it would start out at ten meters, and move out fifteen meters with each relay, scoring would result with the number of hits on each target per shot and the theoretical chance of surviving a hit like that, across every species, again Zach was glad he had modified his shotgun pattern and range for upmost accuracy.

Assault rifles, his bread and butter, would start at fifty meters, move out to one hundred meters and then out to three hundred meters, time and total number of hits to shots fired would be a major factor in scoring as he couldn't help the grin plastered across his face, knowing that his rifle was extensively modified for ranges out to five hundred before he would start having trouble.

Sniper rifles, Zach frowned at this development, would start at one hundred and then move out to two hundred on the next and out three hundred meters on the last relay, time wasn't a factor in this test because making long range shots took time, granted his sniper rifle was classified as an anti-material rifle, meant to knock down whatever he hit with one shot, so that might be a problem.

Grenade launchers wouldn't be timed either, but the number of targets hit per shots fired would reflect heavily on score, granted it started at fifty meters, moved out to a hundred and then at two hundred on the third relay, Zach was glad he had his new toy to put through its paces.

Flamethrowers, an odd weapon to have a specialized test to be sure, would have the same distances as shotguns and score would reflect heavily on the number of targets hit within a certain time limit, it was a good thing that weapons of the particular test could be provided if the individual didn't bring one, something that Zach made a mental note about.

Rocket launchers as well as missile launchers would be a different sort of test, instead of firing live rounds that were designed to take down vehicles and drop ships, they had simulated weapons that would be scored depending how many targets could be taken down with the fastest time, so it was a free for all in a time span of two minutes with thirty different targets moving at ranges ranging from fifty to three hundred meters.

There was also several different crew served weapon systems typically associated with vehicle armament, simulated of course, with similar scoring methods as the rocket launchers, ending the shooting portion of the test.

Lazara also let everyone know that they could continue past the set distances at the end of the third relay, in fact it was heavily suggested to because the scoring would change without the time, simply number of rounds fired to hit ratio. The rule was that at the new distance, hitting four out of five targets would allow the shooter to up the distance, but if they missed, then they couldn't up the distance. Distance would be increased based on the first relay distance, up until the shooter could no longer accurately hit the targets, the only tests not allowed to increase the distance would be the flamethrower, rocket launcher and crew served weapons.

After the firearms test would be technical proficiency, meaning that all those hacking programs he should have studied would have handy as they worked to beat the clock with standard systems found all over galaxy, they had ten things to hack with their own omni-tool and then they accomplished that portion of the test, they would have to hack as many AI mechs within two minutes.

After the hacking portion, using drones in a combat situation, a simulated firefight in a city setting in this case, would determine how well the operator could use them, either through recon, distraction or attack drones would be decided by Lazara herself before the test started. The use of drones was to determine if someone even had skill with using one, a good thing that Zach had invested a lot of credits in his own drone, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember the last time he had actually used it in a fight.

From there they would put the toys down and display whatever hand-to-hand combat talents against professional instructors to be given a score, a combination of points awarded being able to perform silent takedowns, multiple hostile takedown and weapon of choice combat, as long as it wasn't a firearm, against mechs to simulate live targets, a good thing that Zach always had a couple knives on his person at any given time.

If the individual had any biotic potential or in his case, mutant abilities to use as a weapon, they would conduct the next test of showing their abilities, scored on skill, control, number of targets destroyed and to make things interesting, simulated rounds would be fired at them from multiple directions to add stress to the task. Other methods would include gently lifting objects while under fire, preforming complex tasks with only that ability and to test how strong their barriers were in the fact an YMIR mech firing live ordnance.

From there, other skill sets introduced by the individual as special show and tell test that would be evaluated to add a few points to the overall score if that skill was considered helpful.

"Each person who completes the test will head to the locker room on the far side of the training area and wait for everyone else to complete the test before scores will be given out," Lazara shrugged as she turned back to face the group, "any volunteers?"

Zach was the first to step forward, not surprised when he noticed that he was also the sole human being in the group, a total of seven Turains, nine Salarian operators, two other Krogan, a dozen Asari, five Drell, a single Hanar and the only Quarians in the room were Kelvin and Naomi.

Following Lazara into the range, Zach knew what was up first and pulled out his pistol, checking the optic software and ammo mod to make sure it was tungsten jacketed phasic rounds as Lazara pulled out her omni-tool, gave him a nod and hit the Go button as the targets appeared.

He managed the first part of the test concerning the firearms with absolutely no problem, doing fairly decent on the hacking portion, earning a glare from the unarmed instructor, a nervous chuckle from the instructor watching him fill several mechs with knives and a doubtful look from the drone operator when he crashed a recon drone into a simulated ground vehicle.

When he got to display his powers, he earned the right to look sheepish after he launched the YMIR through a reinforced wall with a negligent wave of his hand, but he made Lazara turn a slight shade of green, a feat often declared impossible for Asari, after his driving and piloting proficiency in several different simulated types of vehicles in five different scenarios each, making it through each scenarios with the most kills and fewest number of hits to his vehicles, but after hearing something about checking the programing to see such a feat was possible from his Spectre passenger made him feel if he had overdid it just a little.

"Even without military grade training you will make a wonderful asset to the team," Lazara said as she walked him to the safe room on the far end of the training area, "a little unorthodox to be frank, but I like the idea you think outside the rulebook."

"Thanks, so how did I do?" Zach asked as he sat down on the bench and removed his helmet.

"Once I have all of the scores, I'll let you know, until then, stay here and relax." Lazara answered as she turned on her heel and marched back to the starting portion, shuddering as she passed the vehicle simulators.

It took seven hours before everyone was finished with every single test and the results were displayed for everyone to see, the scores were computed from the whole group in what place they stood overall in the long run.

Zach was mildly surprised by his own scores as he stood next to everyone else looking at the display board as he fought down the urge to do a victory dance.

Pistol: 2nd / 175 meters

SMG: 3rd / 250 meters

Shotgun: 9th / 60 meters

Assault Rifle: 1st / 650 meters

Sniper Rifle: 2nd/ 1,100 meters

Grenade Launcher: 1st / 450 meters

Flamethrower: 4th/ 25 meters

Crew Served: 8th

Rocket Launcher/Missile: 3rd/ 19 out of 30 in 2:00 minutes

Hack: 5th

Drone: 4th

Hand-to-Hand: 7th

Armed: 2nd

Power: 1st

Misc. 9/10 Driving 8/10 Piloting

He wasn't surprised to see that he came the number three guy out of a group of forty-two individuals with an overall accumulated score, it came down to nanoseconds and single rounds for the title of being third, but then again he didn't really count when he was going to be on the team regardless if he scored high enough or not, an unfair advantage over everyone else if he had to be fair.

He wasn't surprised that both Kelvin and Naomi bested him in hack, drone, shotgun, hand-to-hand and showed unparalleled skill with repairing anything, from mechs to starships, of course they were on the team, much to the surprise of everyone else. Jorthan proved to be the absolute best with shotguns, heavy weapons and came in tenth in biotic aptitude, while Bella came in second as the most powerful biotic the group had to offer, along with the highest submachine gun, unarmed and hand-to-hand, so she was on the team. Turbo surprised everyone by having the highest flamethrower and the highest crew served weapons score, along with coming in second for piloting, making him the defacto pilot of the team.

Lazara brought five other people onto the team, a Krogan, an Asari, two Drell and a single Salarian for various well rounded skill sets to bring to the team.

She also split them into two sections of the team, putting Zach with Naomi, Kelvin, Jorthan and the Salarian, Gapo, ex-STG and the team medic after he showed an unmatched expertise of medical knowledge on every species with as little as a field kit, then again he decent shotgun and submachine gun skills, so he was far from helpless.

Lazara was in charge of the other team, making her team the primary and leaving Zach in charge of the secondary team as she told them where to report too as Zach decided to get into some kind of leadership role.

"Alright we all know what are weak points and we all know who has the best relative score," Zach said as the rest of them crowded around him, "we will pair up with one another to practice for a couple hours, I'll start with Gapo, Jorthan, you take Kelvin and Naomi and show them the business end of a rocket launcher."

With two visors glaring at him, Zach figured he hadn't made any friends by putting them both with the Krogan who loved blowing things up as he turned to the latest addition of the team.

Gapo was taller than Zach by an inch, giant eyes and typical colored skin of a male Salarian, he seemed to favor a Claymore 300 Mk V shotgun and a Fury Mk VII submachine gun, as well as Job Mk III pistol.

"Pleasure to meet you, Angel is it? Considered to responsible for over forty thousand rescued assorted species from slavers, traffickers and gangs," Gapo was speaking a mile a minute too, "impressed with skill across multiple weapon systems, also saw recording footage of unique capabilities, very peculiar that you possess ability to neutralize biotic energy with little to no effort."

"Thanks, not sure how you managed to get that footage anyway." Zach asked as Gapo forwarded him all the footage from every person Lazara had picked for her teams as he also sent him the statistics oh whoever had beaten in any category.

"Salarian Task Group training dictates that obtaining information easily accessible for vital training and possible decision making for group strength balancing to be well within the means of the individual." Gapo reeled off as he finished sending the information to the others, without ever asking for their omni-tool addresses, Zach made a mental note to keep all of his personal information locked down tight around Gapo.

Four hours later they headed towards docking bay 620, each having practiced what they could at the range as they found a large Alliance ship waiting for them without any kind of identifying markings on her hull as Zach climbed into his shuttle and headed for the shuttle bay.

Once his shuttle was parked inside the _Star Jumper _shuttle bay two, he had an Alliance docking crew ogling his shuttle before he even got out of the shuttle, which he thought about adding the SR decal on the side just to make it stand out next to the other two shuttles parked in the bay. Granted his also had guns on it, which said a lot compared the others, but there was also a gunship in the far side of the bay, so it made the guns on his shuttle look like toy guns.

Lazara and Bella greeted him at the door leading in from the shuttle bay with a cargo lift to transport all of their crates back to their own quarters as Zach found out he was bunking with members of his own team, apparently Jorthan got a room all to himself, Gapo and Kelvin got along within minutes of meeting each other and Naomi becoming his roommate.

"I think it is sweet that you made her a set of armor that could be adapted for any species and sold for the highest bidder," Lazara smirked as she helped Bella offload the crates outside their room, "all for free too."

"Figured she might need it one day," Zach shrugged as he leaned against the hatch leading inside their spacious room watching Bella pull out various items from a box and putting them away, "I never did see what your special skill was on the test Bella, did you have to use those?"

It was an innocent question, but the shade of purple Bella turned when she realized what she was holding up to for anyone to see mortified her as a weak biotic blast came rocketing his way as he left the room laughing his ass off as Lazara giggled her way across the room to comfort the embarrassed Asari with what sounded like a healing dose of lips, tongue and hands as the grumble changed to a purr in a manner of seconds as Zach left the room to find his own.

Turned out he was across the hall as he found Naomi checking out the room as she quickly took her crate and box to start putting everything into her spacious locker, storage chest and realize that she had more empty space than she could ever fill.

"How could they assign the ground team quarters as large as this when we will rarely be on the ship, if anything the crew would need larger quarters," Zach watched as Naomi measured out the space with carefully measured strides as he idly twiddled his thumbs in amusement, "so much space could be diverted to crew operations."

"Uh Naomi," Zach rubbed the back of his neck, "would it be too much if I told you that we had one of the smaller compartments on this ship?"

By the time a confused looking Alliance lackey appeared at the door, Zach had finished unpacking all of his stuff while Naomi went off on a wild rant, something along the lines of other space faring species incapable of realizing the amount of wasted space when they never spent their lives onboard a ship as the lackey cleared his throat loudly to the get the rambling Quarian's attention.

"The captain has requested an audience with the ground team in the main briefing room, if you follow me I'll lead you there directly." Once Zach donned his armor and gear, a miffed Naomi followed behind him as they were taken up a deck with Lazara, Bella, Kelvin, Jorthan and Gapo in tow.

The briefing room had a long conference table complete with chairs, even one strong enough to support a Krogan as Zach grabbed a seat and waited as the rest of the ground team filed in, followed by the Captain.

It took him all of ten seconds to realize who the captain was as she noticed who he was and froze as she looked at him, a good thing he had taken his helmet off after sitting down.

"Zach, is that you?" Paula Tyson asked as Zach stood up and spread his arms.

"It sure is sis, come here and give me a hug."


	10. Mass Maddness Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten: Ground Rules**

Once the usual pleasantries, including the amused looks from the assembled team sitting in down watching the whole episode, were dealt with, Zach returned to his seat as Lazara activated the holographic display located in the middle of the table.

"Anything in this room is to remain classified by Spectre rating," Lazara swept the room with a steely eyed look before she continued, "any violation of that rule will be dealt with swiftly, is that understood?"

A chorus of acknowledgements from the peanut gallery met with her nod of approval as she put several commands in the console as several arrest warrants appeared, counting into groups of fifty before forming into sub-files. A total of six files appeared on the display, three hundred individuals in total as Zach recognized a few of them from the infamous reputations they gotten over the years, some of them were on wanted lists across the known systems.

"This here is a list of complied terrorists, thieves, slavers, murderers, rapists, serial killers, madmen, weapon dealers, rouge scientists, AWOL special warfare operators, mercenaries, con artists, drug smugglers, radical fundamentalists and every known breed of criminal in the top thousand most wanted fugitives." Lazara paused for effect as the muttering filled the room.

"Targeting these certain individuals won't make the real problem go away, in order to take down their operations to ensure no one else will simply fill their shoes so to speak, we need to take them apart from the ground up," Lazara selected one file at what appeared to random, but Zach noticed that it had a green tab on it, which must have meant something because most of them were red, "with vital information pertaining to particular targets, we will start at the bottom of the list and work our way up."

The file she had selected was highlighted in green, which translated in having viable data on whereabouts and other such information, Zach skimmed the file to discover that it was a Salarian chemist, albeit one who ran a large operation of producing illegal chemical weapons, everything from performance enhancement drugs that were considered highly illegal across Citadel space down to nerve agents that coalitions of every military banned to ever use on the battlefield due to the downright ghastly ways they killed.

"This is Binkoz Guthak, ex-STG operator who was ousted due to extreme torture techniques, later weapons grade chemical agents were flooding the market as he was identified as the ringleader, in less than fifteen years he had erected a power base numbering in the hundreds of security guards, couriers, handlers, workers and ship captains hauling his merchandize across every sector." A series of intelligence reports, unclassified STG from the looks of them, were flashing across the display as everyone took the time to sync their omni-tools to the display to download the files.

"Capturing him alive for further interrogation would be highly conductive for our goals," Lazara then began cycling through a series of horrific pictures, "any time his organization is threatened by any form of law enforcement, military actions, rival mercenary groups and competitors, he responds with unleashing his latest chemical agent on an innocent party."

Scenes of horror flashed across the screen, the aftermath of his terror campaigns on civilian centers on planets to warn anyone from messing with his operation, lifeless bodies of deceased men, women, children, animals and even from the vids, Zach could tell they died painfully. Everything from a temple on Thessia to an orbital station near the Batarian homeworld was shown, passenger ships, stores, public transport stations on multiple worlds, but with the same theme.

"His signature is that he leaves a canister marked with what appears to be his gang symbol," a brief glimpse at the decal enlarged several times, looked like gibberish marking inside a triangle with a single glyph that was translated from ancient Salarian, "his group goes under many different alias names, but this signature is the one link we have to tying him to thousands of deaths."

"We know that he is currently on a fringe planet, where we believe his main production center is located, along with his personal ship, which houses a state of the art communication system that would contact any planet, ship or individual omni-tool from the deepest corners of space," at this everyone perked up as schematics, reports and visual references concerning this particular ship were brought up as well, "which makes our mission a two-fold operation."

Lazara minimized everything as she brought up a new program, this one displaying the planet and ship respectively as real time information streams were filing across the display.

"The good news is that Binkoz happened to be a heavy red sand user, often times returning to his base of operations after successful business transactions," Lazara looked like she had a sour taste in her mouth, "to celebrate, often bringing his new partners with him to spend a few weeks having a party."

Zach was starting to make a connection here as he figured out why this guy in particular was being the first on the list to go, if he had a couple other people on the list as well, then they could potentially nab more than one in a single operation.

"We will have two teams, one strike team will take out the ship, disabling the ship before it has a chance to send out orders to the potential sleeper agents operating around the galaxy to avoid a massive genocide and the other will be hitting the base directly." Lazara turned to Zach as she motioned for him to stand up.

"Zach Tyson, or better known as Angel," the look Lazara gave him was one of jest as everyone leaned in to pay attention, "will be leading that team to take down the ship before the alarm can be raised while I lead the other team and assault the base directly before Binkoz has the chance to escape."

Kelvin was already busy working on his omni-tool, Gapo doing the same thing as Jorthan simply crossed his arms and appeared bored out of his mind, not that Zach was surprised, but knowing the Krogan meant he was already busy thinking of plan as Zach knew he would be holding a campfire to formulate a plan with everyone else as he had the inklings of a plan in his own head.

"My team will be in charge of directly assaulting the base with Captain Tyson providing close air support to knock out AA stations, radar dishes, entrenched locations and create chaos within the base, targeting any ship possible of getting off planet before they have the chance," Lazara turned her gaze over to Captain Tyson, "the idea is to avoid a scorched earth policy, simply render unusable or inoperable without leaving planetary craters."

"You have the best gunners the Alliance has to offer on this ship," Captain Tyson commented as she stepped forward to take control of the display, "we have a dozen orbital cannons as well as the same number of point defense cannons to combat any ship in space, with our advanced power core we can enter the gravity any planet and not be hindered by more than seventeen percent."

"Thank you Captain," Lazara politely spoke as she was now under the spotlight again, "we also have two gunships for this operation as well to provide danger close air support as well, as well as a single Broadsword bomber to provide in space support as well for the first team."

A hand went up, Jorthan it turned out, "How long before we reach the planet with Dr. Death?"

"Six standard days," that translated into roughly nine Earth days if Zach remembered correctly, "any other questions?"

Several others had various questions, not that Zach had anything to comment on as he simply listened and watched before Lazara gave them the order to leave, she would explain the battle plans more in depth at a later date as Zach gave his sister a slight nod before he followed the rest of his team out of the briefing room.

He snagged an Alliance lackey as he was passing by and asked where the best place would be for his team to have a brainstorming session and didn't like any of the options he was given as he figured there was place he could bring everyone together as he had everyone follow him to the shuttle bay where he had left his shuttle.

His shuttle was twice the size of a Kodiak, and the interior made an excellent impromptu war room as the smaller display attached to the ceiling came in handy as everyone grabbed a seat.

"Alright everyone, we have detailed reports on this guy and he sounds like a real piece of work," Zach said as he brought up the projection of the ship and waited a moment, "he isn't going to be on the ship, down on that rock hopefully getting inebriated on whatever red sand he could get, but we can guess he is the real paranoid type to have such a contingency plan in place."

"Coward is what he is," Jorthan grumbled as he slouched into his seat, "bug eyes are nothing but damned spineless pups hiding behind others, present company excluded."

"No offense taken," Gapo replied as he examined the data files, "many of the chemical agents are designed to attack dermis glands on multiple species, would make recommendation to wear environment suits for duration of mission, if team leader takes suggestion into consideration?"

"Gapo, this is where we all bring ideas to the table," Zach nodded his head towards the others, "rather than operate on a single plan, we come up with a group effort strategy and please call me Angel."

"The ship has been heavily retrofitted from the scans we have here on file," Kelvin muttered as he took the ship apart on the display, a rather neat feature as several systems highlighted themselves in different colors, "the ship is actually three separate sections, each section sealed off from each other, no interconnected ventilation systems, smart if you think about it."

"Anyway to crack it without having to alert the crew they have boarders coming," Zach asked as he brought the weapon systems report up, "she appears to be well equipped to repel docking shuttles, wouldn't want them aiming at us as we come in for approach."

"With all the sensors onboard the ship could detect us from half a sector away," Naomi chirped as she reached over and brought up the communication and electronic detection equipment systems, "we couldn't simply jam a ship of that magnitude without a dozen dedicated ships or planetary com stations and even then we couldn't silence it completely."

"Hey Angel," Jorthan grumbled as he looked over, "do you remember that Volus cargo freighter packed with those religious zealots a while back?"

A grin spread across his face at the fond memory of that particular mission way back then as he let out a laugh and slapped his thigh, "I knew there was a reason I listen to you when it strikes my fancy."

Jorthan huffed as Gapo and Naomi mirrored each other by tilting their heads, "Excuse me, but what is this action you speak of?"

"You don't mean the one where we had to dress up as the entertainment to get onboard right?" Kelvin asked as he had a very vivid memory of that mission as he was greeted by a set of matching grins.

"What?" Naomi asked as Gapo blinked several times in confusion.

"Having implications of how to understand that particular predicament with dressing as entertainers to get onboard a Volus ship," Gapo turned to Kelvin, "could you clarify this operation?"

"Sadly yes," Kelvin sighed as he slumped his shoulders, "that particular cult had a thing for slaughtering sacrifices, the more exotic, the more they got off on it, so we," pointing at himself and Jorthan to elaborate, "got dressed in chains, concealed weapons on our persons and struck once we were inside the ship."

"Hhmm, effective method of insertion, however comparing similarities between past and current situation shows no viable chance of plan working." Gapo commented as he scratched the side of his head.

Zach smirked as he looked at the two Quarians on his team before he looked over at the Salarian sitting between them and then at Jorthan.

"We adapt accordingly, because that is a high end communication ship and we just happen to have two of the best repairmen on the galaxy sitting right here." Naomi glanced at Kelvin, who had already resigned himself to the insane antics long ago and shook his head as Zach turned to Jorthan.

"Think you can build a couple sets of tool kit weapons so a scanner can't pick up them up by the time we reach our destination?" Zach asked as the Krogan rubbed a massive three finger hand under his chin.

"With the suit rats it will be easy," Jorthan replied as he pointed a massive digit at them, "anything that goes off when they get scanned can be blamed on their suit systems, but I can easily knock something together for the two of them."

"Make it four," Zach jerked a thumb at himself and then Gapo, "of course you'll be our shuttle pilot and on call with whatever in the Hell you want, a simple infiltrate job to take them apart from the inside."

"Who would honestly expect the techs to take over the ship?" Jorthan shrugged as a wide grin spread across his face.

"Exactly," Zach added as a grin spread across every single face in the shuttle, the ones he could see anyway as he turned to face Gapo, "how could we ensure that the ship is silenced without killing ourselves?"

The Salarian tilted his head as he reached over and brought up the ship schematics, "Ship armed to repel significant external threat, shielding and armor plating around vital areas of the ship, surprise attack unlikely to succeed entirely, onboard defense systems hardwired into ship mainframe, expected guard presence on ship to be heavily armed, would make suggestion to bring device onboard capable of neutralizing entire ship."

Zach nodded as he turned to Kelvin, "Remember the EMP devices we used in the past?"

Kelvin's head shot up as he wildly shook his arms above his head, "That was when we retreated to a safe distance before detonating them, if we are onboard then we could lose power to our suits and die in a manner of minutes!"

"Have we ever gotten you killed in all the times we put you in harm's way?" Jorthan asked as Kelvin shook his head, already bringing up the schematics on the EMP device they had built and used in the past.

A three fingered hand went up as Naomi waved her arm wildly, "Question for the clueless Quarian with absolutely no idea what is going on, but how do setting off EMPs and sensitive suits mix?"

Before Zach could even finish rolling his eyes, Kelvin looked up from his omni-tool with a tilt of his head, "Didn't you read the operating instructions for your suit? Angel over here builds them to resist EMP blasts, a built-in countermeasure for something like that."

"Oh," Naomi answered as she looked over at Kelvin's omni-tool before her eyes bulged out of her helmet a second later, "I doubt our suits could stand against a blast that big!"

"We'll have to make it bigger to make damn sure that we knock out all of the systems, no doubt our boy made sure he some kind of EMP countermeasure built into the ship, but if we get it inside the ship and close enough to the transmitter, it should take care of it." Zach mentioned as he looked closely at the crude schematics, months out of date.

"It'll be too big to pass off as a piece of equipment," Jorthan remarked as he glanced over at Kelvin's omni-tool display to get a decent look at it, "how much bigger are we talking here?"

"Double the standard size should knock the systems out for an hour, but I want to fire every circuit in that tub," noticing the look Kelvin gave him he added, "because the ship will get handed over to the authorities to be taken apart and examined inch by inch for evidence than be salvaged."

"We don't want to knock the systems out for an hour, too many variables in the off chance the crew could retaliate and get a message sent out," Gapo mused for a second before he looked up, "the device will be larger than the original by an estimated sixty percent."

"Close, I was thinking a hundred-fifty percent larger than the current model we've used in the past," Zach answered as he enlarged a particular manifest document from nine months ago with a list of stolen supplies Binkoz had done in the past, "and we're going to walk through the ship with it, no questions asked."

"That would make it at least five hundred cubic centimeters in size, larger if a disguise is to hide the device from unsuspecting crew and possible technicians," Gapo reeled off as he started crunching numbers on his omni-tool before he noticed what Zach was focused on, "unless we say it is a transmitter component vital to the ship."

"Binkoz has been stealing top of the end parts rather than paying for them, he has been scrounging for parts to sup up his baby and we're going to waltz onto the ship with something that tells the entire crew he would approve no matter what anyone would say." Zach opened his omni-tool and began looking up something as the others simply waited.

"Got it," Zach sent the data from his omni-tool to the display as schematics for a brand of transmitter popped up, "latest generation of amplifier that isn't even out of prototype stages yet, very few people know about it and if Binkoz got his hands on it, he would go through any means to obtain it."

"Disguise the device as latest thing on the market, easy enough, but constructing the device will require materials me do not have on hand," Gapo said as he did some number crunching to figure out the parts they would need, "we would need a rather large power cell, a spare from a Kodiak perhaps?"

"I was thinking along the lines of a satellite probe power core," Zach ignored the looks sent in his direction as he sent a model onto the display, "roughly something in the KN538W-6000 series or larger, which is standard on any satellite probe built in the last decade."

"The cost alone would replace your shuttle," Naomi frantically added as Jorthan gave her a look that involved one side of his armored brows to lift upward, "how are we going to afford something like that?"

"Knowing Angel as well as I do, I guess we'll be stealing one." Jorthan rumbled as Kelvin was already sending a request to the Alliance communication officer.

"Now, do you call salvaging parts from a downed probe stealing?" Zach asked the hulking Krogan with a grin.

"When you plan on building it into parts of a bomb to detonate inside of a ship belonging to a biological weapons' builder, then no," Jorthan sighed as he turned to look over at Kelvin, "I thought you would be excited to salvage something instead of moping around."

"Only so I can go through the delicate procedure of crafting it to do what was designed to not do," Kelvin grumbled as he reviewed the schematics of the satellite power core, "one mistake and I turn this entire ship into a floating husk."

"Screw up Quarian," Jorthan leaned forward as he brandished a fist, "and I shall kill you."

"Plan tactically sound, removes all errors of failure to silence vessel," Gapo reeled off as his brows furrowed, "it is believed that this ship would not have such resources on hand and funding would dictate the purchase of such device to be highly unlikely."

"Whoever said we were going to buy one?" Zach asked as he checked his omni-tool, "this is the Terminus, you can't swing a handheld signal detector in any direction without hitting a dozen downed satellite probes."


End file.
